


fake girlfriend

by strawberrymoonlxght



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst with a Happy Ending, Artsy reader, Canon Related, Comfort, Denial of Feelings, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Feelings Realization, First Kiss, Fluff, Gamer Kozume Kenma, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kissing, Light Angst, Mild Language, Post-Time Skip, Pro Gamer Kozume Kenma, Reader-Insert, Relationship(s), Romantic Fluff, Roommates, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-26 20:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30111252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberrymoonlxght/pseuds/strawberrymoonlxght
Summary: You just moved to Tokyo to get some inspiration for your art and you end up living with a new roommate, Kozume Kenma. Even thought you don't see him much, the two of you get along well enough. Until one day Kenma asks you a huge favor, one that he didn't want to ask, and he was surprised when you agreed.After some of his viewers saw you in the background of one of his streams they're asking all kinds of questions, thinking that you're his girlfriend. Knowing how popular girls are on streams, he thought he would get some clout from going along with it and pretending that you were dating. You were already living together, so what's the harm?  How will you two handle a fake public relationship while living together still? Will someone break? What if someone catches feelings?
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Reader
Comments: 15
Kudos: 60





	1. New Beginnings

It was so much more beautiful than you could’ve ever imagined. 

After months of convincing after you graduated high school, your parents finally agreed to let you move to Japan by yourself to continue your studies as an artist. You’d always wanted to travel and being in a new country with a new culture would definitely give a fresh new perspective that you desperately needed. It’s not that you hated where you lived, but you’d been there your entire life. The same streets, same old buildings even if the tenants changed, the same everything. There was no way you would be able to grow if you stayed here, you needed to experience something more. 

Of course you would miss your parents and the few friends that you had, but you wanted to do this for yourself. During your entire senior year you worked the hardest you ever had in your life; picking up shifts at the local bakery, bagging groceries, and answering emails at night all to save up enough money to make the trip. When you first brought it up, your parents were worried about how you would do on your own. 

“Are you sure sweetie?” your Mom asked lovingly. 

“You aren’t going to know anyone there you know? You’re going to have to actually talk to people and make some friends” your Dad added, thinking that he was being helpful. 

Your Mom was born in Japan and your Dad also spoke Japanese so you knew the language pretty well and you didn’t think you’d have a problem being able to find your way around. You’ve always admired the architecture as well as the natural beauty and energy that Japan has. You thought that it might give you some inspiration with your art since you’ve been having some serious artists block lately. Luckily, the pieces that you were able to make were good enough to get you into Art School in Tokyo, which was exactly where you wanted to go. There was no way that you were ever going to get any inspiration in your hometown and you wanted to travel more than anything; be able to experience something different than everything you’ve always known. 

Your parents tried to convince you and them that they should accompany you, but that was quickly off of the table. First of all, that would defeat most of the purpose of you going there. You wanted to get inspired, discover new places, new people, and figure out who you want to be. No way was that happening with your parents there with you and luckily they agreed with little convincing. 

Now as you stepped off of the train you knew that all of that convincing was totally worth it. The sky was cloudless and painfully blue as the sun beamed down on the streets below. The air was crisp and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, the soft breeze blowing them through your hair as delicately as snowflakes. For a moment you just stood there, taking it all in. 

I’m really here. I’m actually doing it. 

You weaved your way through the crowded streets looking for your hotel. 

Finding an apartment was the first thing on your agenda. The school you were attending had a few dorm buildings, but they weren’t your favorite. They were tiny and cramped and you wanted to experience as much of Tokyo as you could; so your parents agreed to pay for a few weeks of a nearby hotel until you were able to find an apartment. But if you weren’t able to find one soon, there was a 100 sq. ft. dorm room waiting for you. You thought you’d be able to see more of the city if you had to walk a ways to your classes which you didn’t mind. You weren’t taking that many classes so you’d only have to go a few days a week. Hopefully you’d be able to meet some people and make friends soon. The thought of being stranded in another country without knowing anyone is a thought that was creeping up faster than you were anticipating. 

Finally you found the hotel you were staying in for the next few weeks. It was on a busy road which you liked because you would be able to walk to all of the local coffee shops. You were secretly hoping that people would just talk to you since you look foreign and you’d be able to make friends that way. You weren’t quite ready to start defrosting your extroverted self quite yet. 

It had been raining the past few days so you hadn’t gotten the chance to try and meet people, let alone apartment search. To be honest you weren’t quite sure where to look. Newspapers? Facebook? Craigslist? No. 

You sighed. Knowing that you would have to do your own research and reach out to people and that no one was going to walk up to you on the street and offer you a great place! Even though it had only been a few days, you were already starting to wonder if this was the right choice. Almost on cue, you were getting a call from your Mom. 

“Hey Mom.” 

“Hi sweetie. How is everything? Did you find the hotel okay?” 

“Yeah I found it just fine, it’s super nice. It’s been raining so I haven’t been out much.” 

“Ugh, I wish it would rain here, it’s been so dry it’s awful. Apartment searching going okay?”

“Um, it hasn’t really happened much yet. I wanted to ask you how I can look for one. Is there like a website I should go to or something?” 

“You can do that if you want. Most places will know their availability if you want to go inside and ask them, but you might prefer to look online, it should be on there. You should just be able to see what’s available in the area, kind of like looking for a hotel.” 

“Okay, I’ll do that tomorrow. Thanks mom. I miss you guys.” 

“Aw we miss you too munchkin. Call me tomorrow! Let me know if you find anything good. Dad says hi and he loves you!” 

“Hi Dad! I love you guys too, I’ll let you go, I’m gonna get some rest.” 

“I love you honey. Goodnight.” 

Tomorrow you would start looking around for somewhere to stay. Classes didn’t start for a few weeks so you had a lot of time to spare and you were hoping to find something pretty quickly since you felt bad that your parents were paying each night you were staying in the hotel.

_I forgot I would have to do all of this boring stuff myself. Hopefully it’ll all work out._


	2. A Roommate?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You run into a certain rooster-head at a coffee shop who has an idea of someone that you might be able to live with.

From the moment you woke up this morning you were already dreading the apartment search. You poked your head through the curtains and were startled by the bright light shining through. 

_Ugh,_ you thought. _I can’t use the rain as an excuse not to go out today._

You dragged yourself out of bed to get prepared for the day. The plan was to check online first, hopefully you could find somewhere there without having to walk into complexes asking for a place to live. It’s not that you didn’t like talking to people, it just wasn’t your preference. You liked keeping to yourself for the most part, but you had friends and were social with them. You wandered down to the hotel lobby in your lounge clothes hoping to get a cup of coffee before you left. You poured some into the tiny styrofoam cup and took a sip. 

_Disgusting_

Mental note: The first thing you’re buying is a coffee maker.  
You took your laptop and decided that you were going to sit in the coffee shop across the street for some breakfast and a latte (that actually tastes good) while you searched. You walked across the street to the small cafe that luckily wasn’t too crowded. There were a few people that looked like they were doing some work sitting at some of the couches, but it wasn’t too much for you. You got your coffee and sat down at a small table near the window and started scrolling through the available apartments in the area. Almost all of them seemed like somewhere you really wouldn’t mind living but they were way over your price point. 

It would probably be cheaper to find someone to live with. 

But that definitely wouldn’t be easy, you probably wouldn’t meet people until you got to your classes, and those people were probably planning on living in the dorms anyways. You really were hoping you wouldn’t have to get a job, but it’s not looking like you’ll be able to afford any of these with the money you have saved. Nonetheless, you continued your online search, scouring the internet and slowly lowering your standards trying to find something a bit more affordable. 

People filtered in and out of the coffee shop the next hour, leaving you with a pleasant stream of background noise to keep you focused. A focus that was soon interrupted by someone peering over your shoulder. 

“Are you looking for an apartment?” you heard come from a stranger standing behind you. You knew that people in Japan liked to talk to foreigners but you were still wary of talking to strange men; especially when you were all alone. You turned around and let out a silent breath of relief as you thought that maybe this guy wasn’t a total creep. He looked about your age, he was pretty tall, with dark, black hair that looked like it could desperately benefit from a comb of some kind. 

“Oh, yeah” you mumbled. “I just moved here for school and I was hoping to find somewhere off campus that’s not too far” you said, turning back around and directing your attention back to your screen. 

“Don’t want to live in a tiny dorm room?” he said, letting out a small chuckle while he pulled out the chair next to you to sit in while he waited for his drink.

“Not really. I want to see as much of the city as possible, so I wouldn’t mind a little walk” you said, still scrolling through the pages, seeing if anything caught your eye, slightly ignoring his presence next to you. You weren’t trying to be rude, you were more indifferent to his presence rather than wanting him to leave. 

“Find anything good?” he asked, leaning closer to get a look at your screen. As he leaned, you caught a whiff of mahogany and vanilla as his messy hair draped over half of his face. 

“Not yet, everything is way more expensive than I thought it would be. I don’t know how I’ll be able to afford a place by myself.” Even though you’d only been searching for a couple hours, you were already starting to feel defeated, wondering if this was a good decision after all. 

“Hey you know what?” you turned to look at him, your face turning red at the sudden proximity to the messy-haired stranger. 

“Hm?” you hummed. 

“My best friend was looking for a roommate since rent was getting kind of expensive.” 

“Oh really? Where do they live?” you said perking up immediately. You didn’t think that the perfect apartment would fall right into your lap, but you weren’t opposed to the thought of moving into someone else's place. It would be a lot less paperwork. As long as they weren’t messy or insane you figured you’d be able to make it work. But, you also didn’t want to get too ahead of yourself; especially accepting apartments from complete strangers. 

“It’s not far, it’s just a few blocks down from here. I’m actually heading over there now. But, I think he’s got stuff going on tonight, but I could take you by tomorrow if you wanted to take a look at it?” he said, gesturing to it’s direction out the window. 

“Are you sure they wouldn’t mind?” you asked, not wanting to impose on this person’s personal space so suddenly.

*a week earlier* 

“Kuroo why is rent so expensive? I’m spending almost all of my money just to live in this place. It’s annoying” Kenma said, looking at his most recent rent payment taken from his account. 

“Because it’s a nice place. Why didn’t you get something smaller or cheaper?” Kuroo asked. 

“The internet’s good, it was the best I could find.” 

“Okay then why don’t you look for a roommate? It would split your rent in half.” 

Kenma side-eyed Kuroo at the mention of someone else living in his space. 

“I don’t know who I’d live with. You already have a place and Shoyo’s moving soon” he said, slumping farther into the veridian colored couch in the living room. Kenma sounded defeated, having disregarded the idea of ever living with Lev who asked him to be roommates when he first moved out. 

“And I’m not asking Lev. I’d rather pay twice what I’m paying now than let him live here.” 

“It doesn’t have to be Lev, it could be anyone. I mean you’re in your room all the time anyways would it really matter?” Kuroo asked, knowing that Kenma only comes out of his room to get snacks in the middle of the night. 

“I guess not, as long as they weren’t crazy or annoying I wouldn’t really mind. I just don’t want to pay this much. I have to save up to get this new game and it’s taking way too long.” 

“It’ll be fine, I’ll help you find someone. We’re close to the college you know, I bet there’s tons of students looking for places to live off campus.” 

*end of flashback* 

“No he’s chill, pretty much keeps to himself. Just wants rent to be cheaper.”  
Even after talking about it for a few minutes it for some reason didn’t click until now. 

He? Do I really want to live with a boy? Is that weird? Oh my god my parents are gonna think I’m a whore. 

“That doesn’t sound too bad. I-I’m not messy and I also pretty much stay in my room, h-he’d barely notice I was there. I don’t have any friends here either, so it’s not like I’d be throwing parties every night.” 

“That honestly sounds perfect. I’ll let him know, I’m Kuroo by the way.” 

“Sounds good. I’m l/n, y/n. It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for doing this for me, I really appreciate it” you said, closing your laptop. 

“Of course, it’s no problem at all. Can I have your number? So I can text you the address and when to meet tomorrow” he said, pulling his phone out of the pocket of his sweatpants. 

“Yeah! Here you go” you hand him your phone, really hoping that this would work out for you. Not only would you have a place to live but you could be making friends too. You were already feeling pretty comfortable with him sitting next to you so hopefully things will go well tomorrow.

“And there you are. I’ll text you the details later tonight after I talk to Kenma.” 

_Kenma…_ you thought. _Pretty._

“Americano for Kuroo!” a barista shouted from over the counter snapping you out of your thoughts. 

“Well that’s me, I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow l/n!” he said, quickly getting out of his seat and grabbing his coffee cup. He gave you a cheesy smile and waved as he walked out of the coffee shop. You shook your head and smiled and waved back as he practically dashed out of the coffee shop heading down the street. 

Living with a boy huh? I guess it’s something I could get used to, I mean I don’t really care that much as long as he wouldn’t be creepy or perverted or anything like that. I haven’t even lived with a girl before, other than my mom, so it’s not like I have anything to compare it to. 

You packed up your things and headed back to your hotel room. A weight was lifted off of your shoulders knowing that you might have already found somewhere to live. You spent the rest of the day walking around town getting a feel for the atmosphere. You also called your mom to tell her that you might have found a potential place and roommate. You may or may not have implied that your new potential roommate was a girl, but it was fine; you didn’t want to worry her before you even knew if it was certain.

As you were walking back to the hotel, you got a text from Kuroo. 

from: kuroo testurou :)  
to: y/n 

the address is 43 maple ave. we’ll meet you outside at around 2:00 pm if that works for you? 

_from: l/n, y/n  
to: kuroo testurou :) _

_sounds good! should i bring anything with me? paperwork or anything like that?_

_from: kuroo testurou  
to: y/n _

_nope! just your cute self will do :)_

Your cheeks flushed when you read his message. You just met today and he’s already calling you cute. Now that you thought about it, you were a little weirded out by the fact that you were texting with this Kuroo guy instead of the person you were supposed to maybe be living with. 

_Maybe he’s lying and he doesn’t have a friend and he’s just gonna kidnap me as soon as I get there. I mean, he looks my age, would that even be considered kidnapping? He seemed like a decent guy, maybe I’m overthinking._

You were pretty nervous about tomorrow, one, because you’d be meeting someone that you might be living with. Two, because you still weren’t completely convinced that you weren’t meeting with someone that was going to end up murdering you. 

You fell asleep trying to decide which was more rational.


	3. Kenma...pretty.

The next morning you woke up with your heart already pounding out of your chest. You didn’t hate meeting new people but you were nervous about your potential new roommate? What if he didn’t like you? Would he tell you to your face? Or would he have Kuroo text you and break the news that he thought you were the worst, most disgusting person he’d ever seen in his life. 

Maybe you were overreacting. 

You spent way too long getting ready in your hotel bathroom. Leaning over the small countertop, looking through the foggy mirror and putting on a small amount of mascara. You definitely wanted to look put together, but not like you were trying too hard. After about ten minutes of contemplating and trying on different outfits, you put on one that you thought would be appropriate for the situation; leaving the remnants of your failed attempts scattered all over the floor. You hadn’t heard from Kuroo today so you were still planning on meeting at 2:00, so you left the hotel around 1:30 to leave yourself enough time in case you got lost.

Once you were in the general vicinity you looked around, trying to figure out which building was the right one. There were a few tall ones around you that all seemed to be apartment complexes and so you wandered over to one of them until you heard a newly familiar voice calling you from another direction. 

“L/N! Over here!” 

You turned around and saw Kuroo standing at the entrance of one of the tall buildings frantically waving both of his arms in the air trying to get your attention as if he wasn’t the tallest person on the street. You made your way over to him and saw that he was standing next to a shorter boy that looked about the same age. He stood to the right of Kuroo, staring down at his phone that was in his left hand. His hair was longer than you were expecting, not that you were really thinking too much about what he looked like before now. It was two-toned, the bleached ends slowly being overtaken by his naturally darker roots. Once you got closer and were standing right in front of them, you saw his golden eyes flash up to meet yours. You were almost taken aback. He was… _pretty._

“Did you get here alright?” Kuroo asked, reminding you of his presence. You were only staring at Kenma for a second, but you had already almost forgotten that Kuroo was standing next to you.

“Yeah, you were right it’s really not very far from the coffee shop.” 

You turned to face Kenma who noticed and looked up from his game again, silently letting you know that you had his attention. “I’m l/n, y/n by the way. It’s nice to meet you Kozume-san” you said, slightly bowing in front of him. Before you could stand up straight you felt a soft hand gently rest on your shoulder and guide you back up. You instinctively blushed at the sudden physical contact, averting your eyes away from Kenma’s as he spoke. 

“It’s nice to meet you too, and you can just call me Kenma” he said, more quietly than you’d expected. 

“Right, o-okay! K-Kenma” you said, your voice betraying you as you stuttered out his given name. It felt strange, almost wrong, as you were very much aware of the meaning of given names in Japanese culture. But at the same time, it left a warm, fuzzy feeling inside of you. You liked the way it sounded coming out of your mouth. 

And so did Kenma. 

“Come on up! We’ll show you around the place” Kuroo said, already halfway through the front door of the building. He led you towards the elevator and once inside he pushed the button for the 14th floor. It was pretty high up, 2nd from the top; luckily you weren’t too scared of heights, or elevators. You were actually excited that you might have a nice view of Tokyo, especially at night. You were already picturing yourself sitting at a window, effortlessly painting the night sky as it stared down on the lively streets below. Pulling yourself out of your daydream you found yourself standing in front of apartment 801 as Kuroo opened the door for you and Kenma to come inside. 

_Why is he treating this like his apartment? Shouldn’t Kenma be letting us inside?_ You quickly lost your train of thought as you stepped inside and took a first glance around.

Once you stepped inside, the apartment was already bigger than you’d imagined. When you stepped inside there was a small foyer area to put your shoes, which you did, and the kitchen was right after, a bit to the right of you. It was a very open space, which was surprising; the living room continuing on right after the kitchen. Your attention immediately went to the two floor to wall windows that decorated the furthest wall in the living room. “Wow” you said under your breath. You squealed internally, already getting ahead of yourself. It was pretty clean, but also pretty empty. There wasn’t any decor anywhere in sight, it almost looked like no one even lived there. Kuroo and Kenma led you over to the left side of the apartment where the empty bedroom was. 

“This would be your room here. It’s the bigger one” he said as he opened the door and walked into the middle of the bare room, still playing on his game. _How can he multitask like that?_

“You didn’t take the bigger room when you moved in?” you asked, wondering why anyone would subject themselves to a smaller room and bathroom if they lived alone. 

“No, I don’t need more space. They’re basically the same anyways.” 

The room was pretty standard, similar to the rooms that you saw when you were searching online. You were happy that you would have your own private bathroom, especially if you were going to be living with a boy. It had a shower and bathtub which you were happy about, as well as decent counter space for all of your makeup, as well as for washing your paint brushes. It was also partially furnished already with a bed frame, dresser, and desk. This was probably the best scenario you could’ve asked for. When Kuroo first told you about Kenma and the apartment you were expecting the place to be a lot smaller. You wondered why someone who barely ever left their room would get this nice of a place, but it was too early to ask such an intruding question.

“So, what do you think?” Kuroo asked, excitedly awaiting your answer. 

“It’s honestly a lot nicer, and bigger than I was expecting. Are you sure you wouldn’t mind someone moving in with you Kenma?” 

“It’s not a problem, I was hoping I could find someone, the rent can be expensive on my own. You don’t seem like you would try to kill me or anything.” 

You chucked a little, trying to think of some other questions you might want to ask your potential roomie.  
“Are you home a lot?” you ask. 

“Yeah quite a bit actually. I don’t go out much” he said, looking down at his feet as if he were embarrassed to admit that.

“Cool. I was hoping I could find a roommate, I don’t like being home alone, so that works for me. I’m home most of the time too, but I mostly stay in my room. So, you’d barely know I was here.” 

“Don’t worry. Even if you aren’t sure if he’s home, he probably is. It takes forever to drag him out anywhere.” Kuroo said, ruffling Kenma’s hair who immediately elbowed Kuroo in the side, making him stop and hunch over in pain. 

“Whatever. So y/n, you wanna live here?” Kenma asked, looking up at you, and ignoring Kuroo’s groans. 

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” 

“I really don’t, I’d like it if you moved in” he said, and you swore you saw the corners of his mouth turn up ever so slightly. 

“Plus--” Kuroo strained, trying to stand back up straight. “You shouldn’t be staying in a hotel for very long. It can get expensive.”

“You’re staying in a hotel?” Kenma asked you, and instantly regretted it because he sounded way more concerned than he wanted to. 

“Only temporarily until i found a place to live. When would you be okay with me moving in?” you asked.

“You can stay whenever. Don’t worry about this month’s rent. I got it already, but if you want you can just Venmo me and I can handle it every month. They aren’t super formal here with paperwork and everything, as long as rent is paid they don’t really mind who lives here” Kenma explained. 

“You should move in now!” Kuroo said, jumping up excitedly like a kid. “Do you need help moving your things?” You blinked at him a few times, wondering why you were watching a grown man look like he just opened his dream present on Christmas morning. 

You glanced over at Kenma, almost to ask if this was something Kuroo did often. He gave an annoyed look back to you, confirming your suspicions. 

“I’ll at least wait until tomorrow Kuroo. And I think I’m fine, I really didn’t bring much with me. Is that okay Kenma? Is tomorrow too soon? I can wait until the end of the week if you-” 

“Tomorrow’s fine.” 

“Thank you, thank you so much. I promise I’ll be a good roommate and I’ll clean--oh and I can bake too and I-” you started rapidly bowing to Kenma holding your hands pressed together close to your chest. You truly were grateful that you didn’t have to stay in that awful hotel anymore; and you possibly just made two new friends. Kenma turned to you as you kept bowing, almost making yourself dizzy and he placed both of his hands on your shoulders holding you still. 

“I told you that you didn’t have to do that; and you’re welcome” he said, dropping his arms back to his sides and walking out of the room and into the kitchen. Kuroo followed him out and you did the same, looking back into the bedroom already thinking of how you were going to decorate it. Kenma grabbed something out of a kitchen drawer and walked over to you and put it in your hand. 

“Here’s a key. We have to share the mailbox one, but I don’t get much mail anyways, so you can keep it if you want” he said. 

“That’s alright we can just keep it here in the kitchen” you said, “I don’t get much mail either.” 

“I’ll be here all day tomorrow so you can move in whenever. If you need help just let one of us know. Kuroo gave me your number so I’ll text you so you have mine too.” 

_He asked Kuroo for my number?_

“See you tomorrow y/n.” Kenma said, walking back into his bedroom. Kuroo led you towards the door to show you out. “Please let us know if you need help carrying anything. We’ll help you out.” 

“I will, thank you so much” you said, walking out the door. You decided that you’d wait a few days to tell your mom the news, you could hold off for a bit. You were so excited, already thinking of the things that you were going to buy and how you were going to ask Kenma if you could decorate the living room. You had so many paintings that there probably wouldn’t be space for all of them in your bedroom. Once you got back, you informed the front desk that you would be checking out tomorrow; you breathed a sigh of relief knowing that your parents wouldn’t have to pay for another night in this place. 

As you were laying in bed, eager to move into your new place you heard your phone vibrate underneath your pillow. You instinctively wondered if it was your friend from back home, who you hadn’t heard from since the day you left. You sat up on your elbow and unlocked your phone, squinting from the sudden bright light. You let out a disappointed sigh, as you saw that it wasn’t from your friend. _Why hasn’t she even texted me yet? Did she forget about me the day I left?_ Your disappointment was soon replaced with a small smile and an unfamiliar feeling in your chest as you saw who the message was actually from. 

_  
from: unknown  
to: y/n  
hey it’s kenma :) _

Suddenly, you weren’t so disappointed that you hadn’t heard from f/n anymore. You were bound to make new friends once classes started, and you already made some: Kuroo and Kenma. One of whom made butterflies flutter in your stomach as you read his text message one more time, before you put your phone back under your pillow and drifted off to sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! I hope you're enjoying so far :) I have the majority of this story planned out I don't think it's going to be super long but we'll see. I'll try my best to update regularly between by school work. I'm open to any comments or suggestions!


	4. An Artist

The next morning you started boxing up all of your things. You didn’t bring much, since it was a flight across the country, you figured that most things you could afford to buy when you got here; especially since you’d be moving the majority of it yourself. You already had most of your clothes packed up by mid-morning, but now it was your art supplies that proved most difficult. You got most of it packed in boxes that you got from the shop you went to this morning. 

Once you finally consolidated it all and took a look around the room, you realized that there was no way you would be able to get all of this yourself, at least not without a car. It would take at least four or five trips to get it all to Kenma’s apartment, not to mention how exhausting it would be to carry each box individually. 

You sighed dramatically and flopped down onto the bed like a starfish, basking in your stress. Knowing that you had to check out of the hotel by 1:00, you quickly hopped back on your feet and grabbed your phone off of the desk. Finally admitting defeat, you texted Kuroo. 

to: _kuroo tetsurou :)_  
from: _y/n_

 _okay so i might have more stuff to move than i thought i did :’(_

to: _l/n, y/n :D_  
from: _kuroo testurou :)_

 _On my way ;)_

It only took about 10 minutes for Kuroo to text you saying that he was here. You met him down in the lobby and he followed you back up to your room. “Sorry, I kind of forgot about all of my art supplies. I didn’t think I would have this many boxes” you said, feeling bad that he had to come all the way here just to help you. 

“No problem at all, I offered my help. I brought my car so we should be able to get this all over there in one trip” he said, and grabbed two of your boxes stacked on top of each other and made his way out to his car. It only took a few minutes for the two of you to clear the room of all of your things as Kuroo took the last box down to his car. 

“Thank you again. I’m gonna go check out, I’ll meet you in the car” you said, as he gave you a thumbs up and walked through the front door out to his car. It was a pretty easy checkout, you just handed the keys back to the front desk clerk since the room was already paid for by your parents. Your parents-- _maybe I should call them and tell them I found an apartment._ You were still nervous about telling your parents that you were living with a boy. 

It’s not like they would be furious, I mean how could they punish you from across the country? They were just kind of conservative and tried to shelter you when you were younger. You had to tell your mom about the first time you held hands with a boy, and you weren’t allowed to be in your room alone with one ever either. Unless the door was _wide_ open. You didn’t blame them, since you were the baby of the family, and a girl. You knew that your older brother could do whatever he wanted with a girl and it wouldn’t matter. _Should I lie and say my roommate’s a girl?_ You would have to think of something soon, since they were going to notice that they weren’t paying for the hotel anymore. Hopefully you’d at least have a few days before they would call you asking about it. 

“Ready?” Kuroo asked as he started up his car. It was surprisingly really clean and smelled clean too, almost minty; and a bit like paint thanks to all of your boxes in the back seat. 

“Sorry that Kenma couldn’t come too.” Kuroo said as he started off down the street. 

“Oh, it’s no big deal. I didn’t have too much stuff to need all three of us anyways” you replied. 

“Yeah that’s true. I think he’s streaming until later.” 

“Streaming?” 

You’d kind of heard of streaming before but you weren’t really sure what people meant when they talked about it. Remembering Kenma playing games on his phone most of the time you were together yesterday, you’re assuming it has something to do with video games. 

“Yeah! He just started, me and my buddies convinced him that he should. He’s actually really good, like at everything he plays. I think he has a few people that watch him, it’s pretty cool and it’s something for him to do” Kuroo explained. 

“That sounds so cool!” you said beaming, genuinely excited about this new thing that you were learning about. 

“It is pretty cool. Plus, if enough people start watching him and subscribing he can actually make money which would be perfect for him.” 

“Really? Oh is that what that one guy does? The guy with the colorful hair that plays Fortnite?” 

“Ninja?” Kuroo asked laughing. 

“Hey why are you laughing at me? Is that not what he does?” you asked, laughing too, but a little embarrassed that you didn’t know what you were talking about. 

“No-no! I’m sorry you’re right, he is a streamer. I’m just surprised you knew of him”

“He’s pretty famous isn’t he? He like, makes a living off of that, right?” you asked, wondering if that was considered a career or not. 

“Oh he makes way more than just a living, I’m talking millions” Kuroo said, “not many people get to make that much though.” 

“I’m sure if Kenma wants to, he will,” you said, looking out the window. 

Kuroo glanced over at you as you said that, smiling slightly at how highly you were already thinking of his best friend. Most people that hear that Kenma plays video games rather than going to college or looking for a job just say that he’s lazy and he’d never make money doing anything like that. But, little did Kuroo know that you had also lived your whole life having people tell you those exact same things.  
Kuroo helped you carry all of your boxes up to the apartment and went into Kenma’s room when he was finished. You looked around at all of the boxes on your bedroom floor, dreading having to unpack everything. But a part of you was excited because you were finally able to make this place home. Living in the same bedroom and looking at the same walls for the last 15 years is enough to elicit a want for change; and this was the perfect change for you. You walked out of your bedroom and into the living room, up to one of the two windows. You wished that you could flip a switch and turn off the sun right then, just so you could see the city lights a few hours early. 

You heard Kenma’s bedroom door open and you turned your head away from the window and saw Kuroo walking towards the kitchen. “Well, I’ve gotta head to practice. I’m sure I’ll see you soon y/n-chan!” 

“Bye, Kuroo-san!” you said softly waving to him as he walked out the door. As Kuroo left, you heard Kenma’s door open back up again and he walked into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. 

“Hey y/n. Did you need any help with anything?” he asked as he sat down at the breakfast bar in the kitchen facing you. 

“I don’t think so, thank you though. Oh, wait! W-would you mind if I maybe hung up some pictures out here? Nothing too girly or anything like that” you said as you started to fail your arms out in front of you, hoping he wasn’t about to roast you for putting any of your art up. “It’s not that it doesn’t look nice already but I thought maybe it would make it a little more cozy” you added quietly. 

“That’d be cool”, he said, standing up and looking around the room. “I wanted to put something in here but I didn’t know what would look cool. Plus I have most of my stuff in my room anyways. Kuroo said you’re an artist right? I’d trust your judgement more than mine.” 

An artist. 

Your whole life your parents had nagged you into going to college for something “real.” Something that could make you money because according to them, “drawing pictures and coloring” isn’t a job. You knew that he didn’t mean much by it, but hearing him call you an artist sounded like the most beautiful thing you’d ever heard. Like it’s really what you were supposed to be. Whenever your parents were showing off your work (when it benefited them), they would always say that you were “good at art” but would never call you an artist. 

But you weren’t going to put up with that anymore. Here’s a new person, that knows nothing about you, or your past, or your parents. All he knew was what Kuroo told him, that you were an artist taking classes at the local university. You could be whatever you wanted to be and it wouldn’t matter. This was what a fresh start was like, and you’d never felt more secure with a decision you’d made in your entire life. This was where you were supposed to be, and who you were supposed to be and you felt free. 

You cleared your throat before speaking, afraid that you had been reminiscing in your head for too long. “Y-yeah, I am. I’m taking a couple classes this year down the street” you said. 

“That’s cool. I was never good at drawing or anything like that. Were you wanting to put up some of your own stuff? Cause that would be pretty sweet” he said walking further into the room and looking closely at all of the blank walls. “Like I said, I’m no artist, but I thought that a big one would go really nice there” he said as he pointed up to the blank space inbetween the floor length windows creeping into the city below. 

“Hey you aren’t so bad, I was thinking the same thing. I actually have one that might fit well.” 

“You should definitely put it up." An alarm sounded from his phone in his hoodie pocket. "Sorry, I have to get back to my stream now, but I’ll definitely want to see it up there” he said, pointing to the empty space as he walked backwards back towards his bedroom. 

You wanted to ask him about his stream, or say something about how you thought it was really cool that he was doing that. You opened your mouth to say the words but nothing came out and his bedroom door closed. You sighed, putting your head in your hands.  
_I really shouldn’t be nervous to talk to my own roommate. What’s wrong with me? It’s not like he’s scary or anything. Why am I nervous?_

You spent the rest of the first night unpacking and decorating your room. It took most of the night and you were exhausted when you were finished so you went straight to sleep. You weren’t sure how long Kenma was up streaming that night, but you never heard him leave his room again, or at least if he did, you were already sound asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so excited to write the next fluffy parts of our lovely y/n and kenma :)   
> let me know what you think of the chapter lengths! i'm used to keeping them pretty short but i'm not opposed to stretching them out i have so much i could write 
> 
> xoxo


	5. Apple Pie & applepi

You’d been living in Tokyo for a little bit over a month now and you’d never been happier. Your classes started last week and you loved them. Since you hadn’t been to college yet, they’re just standard art classes so they aren’t too stressful, at least not yet. You had a routine now, where you could stop and get coffee on your way to school (the same coffee shop you met Kuroo at) and meet up with some other kids in your class. 

You were acclimating to life in Japan a lot better than you were expecting. It helped that your friends in classes, as well as Kenma were assisting you in the transition. You really liked the friends you made in your classes. One was named Sugawara, he was a year ahead of you and he was really friendly and would always study at the cafe with you. He wanted to be an art teacher so he was going through and taking some of the few art classes that he still needed. 

Another was a girl named Hanako who was in both of your classes and she was the same year as you too. You were hoping that the two of you would stay friends and be able to take more classes together. She was a lot more outgoing than you but in a good way. She would make you laugh and talk to people that you wouldn’t normally talk to. Hanako was really able to get out of your shell and you were grateful. 

You were feeling more secure with your life here in Tokyo, everything was going well in school and at home. You were also getting more comfortable talking to Kenma. You learned that both of you stay up way later than you should as you often ran into each other in the kitchen in the middle of the night when you were both scouring for snacks. 

On the nights that Kenma wasn’t streaming he would sit with you in the kitchen and talk to you. Not about much, just little things, but it made you happy that you were finally getting to know him a little bit better. And sometimes he would come and sit and neither of you would say anything. 

But it wasn’t an awkward silence, it was pleasant. One of your pet peeves was being around people that always felt the need to fill silence. You liked it, it was comfortable. You started to feel like you could be yourself. 

Today was a particularly stressful day for you. Not yet at least, but you planned a personal agenda that was bound to make you upset. You have your first project due next week and you were determined to get most of it finished tonight; since it was the weekend you’d have more time. 

You also decided that this was the day you were going to call your mother and tell her that you found a place to live, and that it was with Kenma. This season was pretty busy for your parents with work and so you got away with not calling for a while and just updated them via text message. 

On your way back from class, you walked with Sugawara, contemplating your decision. 

“I don’t wanna call them Suga, you do it for me” you whined as you stared at the contact in your phone and pushed it in his direction. 

“You really should call them l/n-chan. Don’t you want to let them know how you’re doing? And that you haven’t been spending their money for the past few weeks. I honestly don’t know how they haven’t noticed yet” 

“They don’t check that often I guess. Ugh, I’m nervous” you said as you walked over to a bench on the sidewalk and sat down, setting your bag on the ground. 

Suga followed you and plopped down next to you. “They won’t be mad l/n. It’s not like you’ve done anything wrong. So you’re roommates with a guy? Who cares?” 

“My mother cares. I’m just gonna get it over with” you said, grabbing your phone. 

“You know you don’t have to lie if she asks. But, you also don’t have to call and just say ‘hey Mom I’m living with some dude I barely know” he said. 

“Good point. God you’re so smart Suga, you really should be a teacher” you said smiling. 

“Don’t stall,” he said firmly. 

“I’m not stalling, I ju--” Suga grabbed your phone out of your hand, pressed ‘dial’ for you and held the phone up to your ear. 

“Suga!” you shouted in a whisper. 

“Call!” he yelled back in the same soft tone. 

You tensed up when you heard your mother’s excited voice on the other line. 

“Hello?” 

“Hi Mom” 

“Hi sweetie how are you doing? Oh I missed your voice!” 

“I’m fine Mom” 

Suga gestured to you for you to keep going, since you were being pretty dry with your responses already. 

You put on a smile and brightened up the tone of your voice.  
“I’m doing pretty well actually. I like my classes and I made a few friends. I also found a roommate to live with, so I’m actually all moved into an apartment now” you spilled it out all at once, anxiously awaiting her response. 

“That’s great y/n! Who are you living with? Someone from school?” 

“Um, no actually I met _them_ when I was out at a coffee shop” you semi-lied, knowing that the real story would be way too confusing. So, for the sake of this hopefully short explanation that you were giving your mother, Kenma is the one that you met in the cafe. 

“That’s great! Are you liking it? What’s the place like?” you let out a silent sigh of relief and gave a thumbs up to Suga. 

“It’s great, I love it a lot. It has an amazing view of Tokyo. I'll send you a picture when I get back” you said, extremely relieved that she didn’t pry any further. 

“I’m so happy to hear that you’re doing well n/n. I’m so sorry sweetie but I’ve gotta take this work call right now but I’ll talk to you soon okay! I love you so much” 

“Sounds good Mom. Love you too” 

You hung up the call and finally let out an audible sigh of relief as you hung your head off the back of the bench. 

“See, that wasn’t so bad,” Suga said. 

You sat back up abruptly when you processed his words. 

“Only because she didn’t ask about it,” you said. “But, it’s fine, I’m too stressed about this project already to be thinking about when that will come.” You stood back up and Suga did the same as you continued to walk back to your apartment. Suga lived in one of the other apartment buildings on the street. The same one you walked towards on the day you met with Kuroo and Kenma for the first time. 

The streets in Tokyo weren’t as bad as they were back home, but you were grateful that you had someone to walk you back home. Hanako lived in the dorms on campus so you’d only walk with her when you were going places closer to where your classes were held. 

“See you on Monday l/n-chan!” Suga said as he gave you his signature smile and waved as he walked into his own apartment building after stopping in front of yours. You were determined to grind tonight so that you could get enough of your painting done so that you could feel better about resting for the rest of the weekend. 

***** hours later that night *****

You stuck by your word and got a good amount of your project done. It was a painting, which was something you were pretty good at and so you would only have to add some minor details next week to get it turned in on time. You hadn’t seen Kenma yet today, but you knew that he usually streamed on Friday nights, so he’d probably wander out at some point for snacks. 

It was around 10:00pm by the time you finished up, but you were nowhere near being ready for bed. You walked out into the kitchen looking for something you could eat. As you were searching through the kitchen you saw the bag of apples you bought a few days before that you completely forgot about. 

You remembered that your mom had given you the recipe for her mother’s apple pie that you absolutely loved when you were a kid. You’d never made it before, but working in the bakery part-time last year helped you perfect some of your baking skills. 

You started to gather all of the ingredients for the pie from the cabinets as you pulled up the recipe on your phone. Luckily you had everything that you needed because you had already mentally set your mind on making this pie. 

You went in your room and grabbed your apron that was still packed in a box under your bed that was filled with random items you didn’t know what to do with. You tied it around your back and got to work on the dough. You figured it wouldn’t be too difficult and you got excited too. You hadn’t baked anything just for fun in a while. You put on some music that made you happy and danced around the kitchen as you continued getting everything ready to bake the pie. 

A song that you particularly enjoyed was playing and you were singing it softly to yourself while dancing, probably a little too much for someone that’s supposed to be precisely perfecting the edges of a pie. As you were pinching the two crusts together to get the pie ready for the oven (and dancing like a fool) you saw Kenma’s bedroom door open. 

“Oh--Ken-aaaahh!” Right as you said his name you panicked and slipped on some flour that had gotten on the kitchen floor and fell with your arms flailing in the air and screaming like you were in a cartoon. 

“Y/n!” Kenma said as he quickly walked over to where you slipped. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah! Yep! I’m great!” you declared, standing up straight a little too quickly. Apparently still forgetting that you were still standing in the flour and you slipped again. 

“Woah, god,” you said as you went to steady yourself on the countertop, but there were already two hands on your forearms to keep you upright. 

Your eyes met Kenma’s as he still held onto your arms so you didn’t fall again. You felt your heart beat faster and your face heat up at the contact. 

“You good?” he asked. You quickly looked away, hoping he didn’t see your blushing face. 

“Yeah, sorry,” you said nodding, and he let go of his grasp on your arms. 

He took a look around the kitchen that was covered in flour and ingredients that were spread all over the counter. 

“What are you doing?” he asked, sounding seriously puzzled. 

“Oh, don’t worry I’ll clean up the mess I promise!” you said, already trying to get some of the flour off of the counter. 

“What are you making?” he asked you, clearly not worried about the mess which made you relax. 

“Well, I’m _trying_ to make apple pie. It’s my grandmother’s recipe and I’ve never made it before. But I had a bunch of apples and I was craving it, plus I’m not tired and have nothing better to do” you said, letting a small smile creep up on your face. 

“Did Kuroo say something to you?” Kenma asked. You weren’t sure why he was sounding so serious. Was he mad? 

“About pie? No, I haven’t talked to him recently. Are you gonna be up for a little bit? If you do, do you want some when this is done baking?” you asked, making his ears go red. 

“Y-yeah I’ll be up. I’m done streaming now but I’ll still be playing for a while. Just let me know when it’s done. It smells really good” he said, looking at the ground and making his way back to his room. 

You laid on the couch and scrolled through your phone while you waited for your pie to finish baking. _Why did I have to make a complete fool of myself?_ You cringed at how clumsy you likely appeared in front of your new roommate. _He probably thinks I’m dumb now. God, why was I dancing like that?_

You threw your head back on the arm of the couch replaying the situation in your head. _Why did I feel that way when he grabbed me?_ It’s not like you’d never been touched by anyone before. But when he stopped you from falling, and when he touched your shoulders on the day you met him, you got a weird feeling. 

Your whole body tingled and heated up like it was on fire. Like there was an electrical current flowing right out of his hands and into your body. You thought about texting Hanako to ask her what she thought it was, but you were afraid of her answer, so you decided against it. You definitely didn’t want to go down that road. You didn’t even want to go near it. 

You tried to clear your mind of any remaining thoughts and luckily the timer on the oven beeped, signaling that your pie was finished. You ran over to the oven to take it out and see how it looked. You were honestly proud. It looked and smelled amazing. 

You let it cool for a minute while you grabbed some plates and utensils for you and Kenma. You cut two slices and put them on the plates and topped them with small scoops of vanilla ice cream that quickly melted into the crust. You hoped that it would taste as good as it looked. 

You quietly knocked on Kenma’s bedroom door, hoping that he hadn’t fallen asleep yet. But he quickly responded, “Come in.”  
You slowly push the door open and see Kenma sitting at a rather large desk covered in LED lights and multiple monitors. You looked around and noticed how decorated his room was. There were posters of different movies, games, and animes on his walls. He also had a decent collection of manga, funko pops, and figurines, all neatly organized in a case up against the wall near his bed. 

“I have your pie,” you said, dragging out the last syllable almost sounding sing-songy. 

_God, maybe I am tired, why am I singing?_

You didn’t see the blush that rose on Kenma’s cheeks as he heard you. “Oh yeah, thank you. You can set it here”, he pointed to the desk next to him. 

“Your room is really cool” you said, still looking around at everything hung up on his walls. There was a lot, but it had a purpose. It was the most organized and decorated boys room you’d ever seen. 

“Thanks. I figured I should have something in the background when I stream” he said, still being able to play his game without missing a beat. You stood behind him for a moment and watched him play flawlessly. Some words on the screen caught your eye, right above his character. 

_applepi_

Your eyes flickered over to Kenma, over to the fresh apple pie you’d just set on his desk. 

_Cute…_ you thought to yourself. 

“I wish I knew how to play games like that, you’re so good! I seriously suck” you said, remembering the time your brother tried to teach you how to play Call of Duty and it ended in him yelling at you for getting stuck in a corner. 

You think you heard him let out a small laugh under his breath. “I could show you sometime if you want” he said casually. 

“Really? You’d teach me?” you said excitedly, thinking that maybe you would finally do something together and become friends. 

“Yeah, I mean you can’t be that bad right” he said, as if it was going to be the easiest thing ever to teach you. 

You laughed nervously, knowing that it would be far from easy. 

“I’d like that actually. I’m a little tired now, so I think I’m gonna clean up in the kitchen and head to bed. Let me know how you like the pie” you said, heading towards his door. 

“I will. Goodnight y/n” he said, without taking his eyes off of the screen. 

As you closed the door you relished in the way your name sounded rolling off of his tongue. But once again you pushed the thought into the back of your mind and started to clean up the kitchen before you got ready for bed. 

Once you left the room Kenma switched off his game and stared at the pie that you’d placed next to him. He got a weird feeling in his stomach that was more than hunger. He ate it and he didn’t think that there was any other apple pie he’d had in his life that tasted as good as yours. Was he really feeling this way just because of a piece of pie? 

Maybe it wasn’t just that. Maybe it was because someone made him his favorite food, without even knowing that it was his favorite. Maybe it was because he had a new roommate that he could tolerate, that he actually liked. Maybe it was because she showed an interest in his video games, and that she seemed to get flustered whenever he was close to her, touched her. 

Or maybe it was just about the pie. That someone had made him his favorite pie; and that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this chapter is longer than the others but I couldn't help myself. Also I know that it isn't canon but I couldn't get art teacher Suga out of my brainnn! Hope you're liking it so far :) We're getting to the main part of the plot soon, I don't mean for the title to be clickbait don't worry the fake relationship is coming. I'm a sucker for a slow-burn :)
> 
> xoxo


	6. Stressed Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight Language Warning: There's a few curse words in this chapter, as y/n gets frustrated with herself.

It had been about 5 months that you’d been living in Tokyo now and you’d already forgotten what daily life was like when you were living back home. You hung out with Hanako and Suga every day during your classes. Some days you would study back in Hanako’s apartment, and other days you would walk with Suga to the cafe. 

Recently you’ve been most stressed about one of your classes. The other was very easy and you actually enjoyed it for the most part. But in this particular class your professor was starting a unit on digital art, which wasn’t something you were very good at, or had much experience with (because you sucked at it). 

You gave a lot of credit to digital artists and loved what they did, but you felt super out of place in class. A lot of the other students, including Hanako, were wanting to pursue a career with some aspect of digital art, like graphic design. The assignment that you had to do really wasn’t very difficult (if you knew what you were doing). But, luckily Hanako offered her help to you for a few days so that you could at least get the basics down. Today was the last day before the weekend, so you’d have to finish up on your own at home since the final product was due on Monday. 

You sat in her dorm with Procreate open on your iPad as she tried to show you how to shade your drawings one more time. 

“So you add another layer here, drag it up, and then start your shading. You should be able to move them around and clean them up once you’re done too” she tried explaining it to you even after trying to show you all week and you just still weren’t getting the hang of it. 

You groaned and dropped your head down onto the table with a thud. “Ow” you mumbled, immediately regretting your choices. 

Hanako laughed at the fact that you were being so dramatic. “You can do it y/n-chan. I think you’re overthinking it a little bit, you’re good at this stuff. Don’t let the iPad scare you away” she said, pushing it closer to your head that was still flat on the table. 

You lifted just your head off of the table to glare at Hanako sitting across from you with a smile on her face, clearly disregarding your pouting. “I’m not scared of the iPad Hana-chan” you said, deadpanned, clearly not influenced by her encouragement. “I’m just afraid it’s going to be so much worse than everyone else’s. Most people in the class have been doing this stuff forever” you said, grabbing your iPad off the table and looking at the disaster that was on the screen in front of you. 

All you were trying to draw is a plant in a pot. Maybe you would add some background if you were comfortable, but you could barely get your lines how you wanted them and you were afraid to even attempt the shading. 

“It’s fineeee y/n-chan” Hanako sang, grabbing both of your hands in hers in an attempt to pull you out of your sour mood. “You just haven’t had enough practice, but you’re getting it! I swear you’re catching on way faster than I did when I started digital. You’ll have it down in no time” she said, trying to break through your walls of negativity. 

“Thanks” you mumbled, pulling your hands out of hers. Even if you didn’t show it, her words did have an effect on you. The truth is, the reason you were afraid of going to art school in the first place, was because it seemed like everyone around you was going into graphic design. Everything always looked so much cleaner than on paper and you were worried that no one would prefer the style that you liked. So, not being good at this was really getting to you. 

But Hanako was the first friend that you had that was ever supportive of your art. Your friends back home weren’t into it, except when they would ask you to make things for them. They would always ask you what you wanted to do and what you were going to major in and they would always try to seem supportive, but their true feelings were transparent. 

Yes they were your friends, for a while actually. But you knew that they thought you were wasting your time with art. Always trying to persuade you into some career path that they thought might be right for you. You didn’t want to blame them too much, you knew that they were trying to look out for you and wanted you to pursue something where you could be successful and make a living. You already had your parents doing that for you and you wished that you could have at least one friend that believed in you. Hanako was the first to believe in you, even if it was subtle and she didn’t even know she was doing it. It gave you the motivation that you needed to keep going. 

You started packing up your things as Hanako started to get ready for her last class of the day. Unlike you, she was taking a full-time schedule of classes and seeing how busy she was made you never want to do that to yourself. You were content with taking your time. You wanted to enjoy yourself doing what you loved. 

“I’ve gotta head to class, I’ll see you later y/n! Send me a picture once you get it finished, I know it’s gonna be great!” she said, throwing her hands in the air and hopping down the hallway of her dorm building. 

You chuckled under your breath and shook your head as you headed down the stairs to head back home. You were hoping that you could get finished tonight so that you could have the rest of the weekend to yourself. It was Friday night, which meant that Kenma would be streaming later for most of the evening. 

The two of you had gotten closer over the past few months, and especially these last few weeks. After he discovered that you could make apple pie and you realized that he loved it so much. You both silently designated Saturday nights for apple pie eating. Sometimes he would be streaming and you would stealthily crawl on the floor to hand him his slice so that you wouldn’t be seen by his viewers. 

Other nights he would sit in the kitchen with you as you made it, knowing that he wouldn’t be of any help to you. Even if he offered you would typically refuse, which he was relieved by. You seemed like you did things a particular way as you would often scold yourself and mumble under your breath as you were keenly focused on perfecting the recipe. 

You liked the nights that Kenma would sit in the kitchen and eat with you. The two of you felt like you could finally be yourselves around each other which made living in the apartment really comforting. You felt like you were actually friends now; you would eat together, talk about your days as if you’d known each other for years. Kenma was also feeling more comfortable teasing you a little bit here and there as he often did with his friends. You liked the banter between the two of you, it was something that you always liked with your friends back home. Are you truly friends if you didn’t make fun of each other most of the time? 

Kuroo noticed this too whenever he would stop by to hang out and play games in Kenma’s room. He was glad that there was someone else that Kenma could talk to because he felt bad when he had to move. It’s not like he was far away, but he was worried that Kenma would stop interacting with people altogether if he wasn’t around to encourage it. But once he saw the two of you already eating pie and sitting on the couch laughing together when he came over, he knew he had nothing to worry about. 

He noticed other things about his best friend as well. The way that Kenma would look at you for an extra second whenever you walked near him. Or the way that his eyes would light up at you when you smiled or laughed. Sometimes he swore he would catch an instant of a blush spreading across Kenma’s cheeks whenever you sat close or ruffled his hair which he pretended to hate. But, Kuroo could see past the annoyed look on his face to the tips of his ears that would turn cherry red at your touch; and the brief moment that he would catch his eyes flicker down to your lips. But each time they would lift back up, almost faster than they came. 

It was so subtle that Kuroo wondered if he was imagining things. He didn’t want to ruin anything that was unraveling before his eyes, so he decided to keep his thoughts to himself, silently observing. 

You sat in your room with lo-fi music softly playing in the background, hoping that it would calm your frustrations that were paired with finishing up your drawing. You had the basic outline finished to your liking and it was time to color everything in. 

You tried to remember everything that Hana-chan told you about the different brushes, and layers but it was all seeming to jumble together the moment you had to do it on your own. 

_It really shouldn’t be this hard. It’s not hard, people do this all the time and it looks so good. I can do this, it’s not hard, I just have to do it_

You attempted to encourage yourself as you started to choose your colors and fill in the lines. Despite your advice to yourself, you became angry quickly. Nothing was going the way that you wanted and you weren’t remembering any of Hanako’s advice that she gave you. In that moment you regretted not writing any of it down somewhere. 

After a few more minutes of trying, you looked down to see the green streaks on the leaves that you had made, that you couldn’t blend together. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, slowly walking over to set your laptop down on your desk. 

Immediately after you took one of the pillows from your bed and threw it forcefully against the wall, ratting some of the frames you had hung up.

“God damnit!” you cried, flopping onto your bed face first. “It’s a fucking plant!” you screamed into your pillow. You knew that you should be able to do something so simple but it wasn’t happening as you had planned. You sat up and threw all of the pillows and blankets off of your bed as tears involuntarily streamed from your eyes. You continued to angrily throw your bedding all around the room in an attempt to relieve some of your frustration in a way that wouldn't break anything around you. 

Once the remnants of your neat bed were scattered all over your bedroom floor, you got off of your empty bed and walked out of your room, slamming the door behind you. 

You walked to the kitchen to grab some water to try and calm yourself down. You really wanted to get it finished tonight, but you needed a break or you were really going to lose it. You stood by the kitchen counter sipping your water slowly, hands still shaking in irritation. 

As you stood there, angrily drinking your water, you saw Kenma open his door and cautiously peeked his head around the corner. Once he saw your pink, tear-stained face he stood up straight in his doorway. 

“Y/n?” he asked quietly. 

You looked up at him, not changing the annoyed expression that riddled your features. It sent shivers down his spine as your withering stare burned through his, and he made a mental note to never make you angry. He subtly averted his gaze, afraid that if he looked straight into your eyes he would turn to stone. 

“Um, are you good? I thought I heard some yelling and thumping” 

You softened your expression as you heard the genuine concern in his tone. You also felt bad if you were making too much noise during his stream. 

You sighed and sat down at the breakfast bar, resting your chin in your palm. 

“I have this stupid assignment due on Monday and it has to be digital which I’m really not good at and I’m really trying but it’s just not turning out the way I want it to. I even tried to watch some YouTube videos but they aren’t helping and I just want to be abl--” 

Your rambling was soon interrupted by Kenma who was staring at the space between the clerestory windows that was no longer bare. 

“When did you hang that up?” he asked blankly. 

You paused for a moment, wondering why he interrupted your venting to ask such a question. You followed his gaze to the large marble painting that you had done for a project in high school that was now hanging centered between the two windows in your living room. 

One thing that Kenma had learned about you over the past few months was that if you’re spiraling about something, the best way to calm you down is to distract you from it. 

“Uh, just a few days ago” you said, wondering why he was just asking about it now. 

He silently walked over to the painting and looked up at it for a good minute or two. “How did you do that?” he finally asked, not taking his eyes off of it. 

You remained at the breakfast bar and thought about how long it took you to make that when you were working on it at home your senior year. 

“I just basically poured a bunch of paint on it and pushed it around with a hair dryer. Nothing too fancy” you said. 

“Hmm” he hummed softly to himself, his eyes still glued to the mixture of blues, greens, and whites that danced above him. “It looks like it should be hanging in a museum, or a gallery or something” he said, thinking out loud. 

You wanted to say thank you, but no words found their way out of your mouth as you watched him take a few final glances at the painting, before turning around and making his way over to the other side of the breakfast bar across from you. 

“You should take a break” he said plainly, “you shouldn’t exhaust yourself.” 

You leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling, knowing that he was right. “What am I supposed to do? I’m just gonna be sitting here thinking about it” you said, which was the truth. 

“C’mon” he said, walking around to your side of the bar so he was standing right next to you. 

“What? Where are we going?” you asked.

He reached his hand out to you, signaling for you to stand up. 

“Nowhere. You’re gonna chill out for the rest of the night. You can finish it tomorrow with a clear head” 

You shyly put your hand on top of his and he loosely wrapped his long, slender fingers around your hand and led you over to his bedroom. 

“W-what are we gonna do? Aren’t you streaming tonight?” you asked, getting nervous that he was walking you to his bedroom and holding your hand. 

“Yeah but I have a few hours before I have to start. You said you wanted to learn how to play games right?” he asked, quickly letting go of your hand and closing his bedroom door. 

You stood awkwardly in the middle of his room, waiting for him to tell you what to do. 

“Really? I do want to Kenma, but I told you I’m really not good. I don’t want to make you mad” 

He laughed and sat down in his gaming chair and set another one beside him. 

“It’s fine if you aren’t good. I am and I’m gonna teach you. Sit” he said, gesturing to the chair that he pulled closely next to him. "And I promise you there's no way you can be worse than Lev." 

You walked over to his desk and sat in the chair beside him. You watched as he got another controller and set everything up for you. Even though it was a small gesture, you knew that he was doing this to distract you and you were grateful. 

Kenma was glad that he was able to distract you from your stress. But, on the other hand, he was really just excited that he would get to spend some of his night doing his favorite thing, with his favorite person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update yesterday I was working on a lot of stuff for school! I also didn't mean for this chapter to be so long so I stopped kind of in the middle so don't worry we'll see y/n and Kenma playing games in chapter 7 :) As always thank you for reading!! 
> 
> xoxo
> 
> p.s. I also have never used Procreate or any kind of digital art program so if the mentions of it are wrong I'm sorry, I only used lingo I heard on TikTok :')


	7. Minecraft

You were getting nervous as Kenma was setting up his monitor so that you could play sitting right next to him. You’d only ever watched him play games when you would bring him snacks that you made but you knew that he was good from watching in those short minutes, and from hearing Kuroo and his other friends talk about it. You knew that he had been streaming more often recently so it seemed to be going well for him, but you never really asked about the details before, since you knew so little about what it really was. 

“How’s your streaming been going?” you asked nervously. “It seems like you’ve been doing it more, do you have a lot of people that watch you?” 

Kenma sat down in his chair next to you and handed you a controller to use. You took it from him, your fingers brushing up against his for a brief second making all the heat in your body rise up to your cheeks in an instant. 

“Yeah I guess so, I have more subscribers now so I want to make sure that I stream enough that they wanna keep watching, you know?” he said. 

“What are subscribers? Like they just watch you all the time?” you asked. 

He started maneuvering through all of the games that he had and landed on Minecraft. It had an update so he downloaded that, since it would only take a few minutes to get started. 

“Yeah, so when they subscribe to me they pay money every month to support me. Plus if they do they can do more things in the chat and little stuff like that” 

“How many do you have?” 

“10,000” Kenma said, and turned to you after he realized that you were silent for some time after his response. 

You sat there with your mouth hung open and eyes sparkling back at him. 

“What? It’s n-” 

“TEN-THOUSAND?? Kenma oh my god that’s insane! You have 10,000 people that watch you every time you stream. That’s like a whole stadium, that’s like how many people are at my school. That’s crazy!” you gleamed in excitement. 

Kenma softly blushed and quickly turned his head away so that you wouldn’t see. “I know it seems like a lot, and I’m grateful for it,” he said, turning his head back to you once his cheeks had regained their ivory hue. 

“But you clearly need to do your research” he said, lightly flicking the middle of your forehead with his thumb and index finger. “There’s people that have millions, and hundreds of thousands. So, I have a long way to go.” 

“Still” you mumbled. “It’s still impressive. I mean how many people can really say that they’re doing what they want to with their lives and are actually good at it?” 

Kenma didn’t know what to say. He knew you didn’t mean much by it, but so many people had scolded him for what he was doing, telling him that he wasn’t good enough. He had even called his parents last week to tell him that he was actually making money from it now, but they still wouldn’t buy it. They were so negative, telling him that it wasn’t “real money” and that people could get bored of him at any time. 

A ding sounded on the computer, signaling that the game was ready to play and Kenma reeled his thoughts back in and started the game up. 

“Is this okay with you?” Kenma asked, referring to his choice of game for the two of you. 

“Yeah! I’ve always wanted to learn how to play it, everyone says that it’s easy; and the animals are so cute!! Can we get some?” you asked excitedly. 

Kenma glanced at you from the corner of his eye, seeing you light up as you looked at the screen. He looked at the way that your hands attempted to find a good grip on the controller that was comfortable for you. And how your legs were pulled up and criss-crossed as your body sunk into the chair underneath you. 

He had played games with his friends countless numbers of times before. So why did this time feel any different? 

He sighed happily, shaking his head, “Yeah, we can keep some of them.” 

“Yay!!” you chimed, getting ready to play. 

He taught you which buttons did what and let you try them all out. It took some getting used to but you slowly got the hang of it. You could jump just fine but you weren’t very good at walking around and looking around at the same time. Most of the time you would end up walking in the semi-right direction while either looking at your feet or the sky. 

The two of you had been walking around your new world, looking at all of the different biomes and exploring your area. 

“Where do you want to live?” Kenma asked. 

“What do you mean?” you asked, confused of what he meant because you weren’t seeing anywhere nearby. 

“If you see a place that you like, or that you think looks pretty let me know, and that’s where we can build our house” 

“Ohhh, we can build our own house?! Can we make it look like whatever we want it to?” you asked, getting excited about the game a little bit more. 

Kenma chuckled softly. “Yeah we can. We can build it anywhere and I can make it look like whatever you want.” 

You knew that it was just a game, but he was being so nice. You weren’t sure why you were getting all warm and fuzzy at the fact that he was going to build a house for you, or that he was letting you pick whatever you wanted. You knew that he wouldn’t usually do this with his other friends if they were playing this game, but you figured that it was just because he was trying to make you feel better about your assignment. 

“Unless you want to build separate houses, that’s fine too” he said, taking your silence as not wanting to do what he had suggested. 

“Oh no it’s fine!” you said instantly in defense. “We can just have one. It’ll be easier, plus I’m sure yours would look a lot better than mine anyways.” 

“Cool, cause mine would definitely be better. I want it to be at least a little fair” he said, smiling. 

You looked over at him as he said that and noticed the smile on his face. You rarely got the chance to see him smile. He did sometimes, but it was usually small and subtle, or the rare occasions that he was laughing. But now that you were here doing something with him that he loved more than anything else, you saw a genuine smile; as if he was the happiest person in the world at that moment. 

And he was. 

You were now walking to a forest where Kenma told you to get some wood from. He was letting you gather all of the materials so that he could build your house. He let you choose what the house looked like and what it was made out of, so you knew exactly what you needed to get. 

You declared that you would be fine getting to the forest on your own, since you had just passed by it after settling on the location for your house in an open field near a pond, with the view of a snowy mountain in the near distance. The problem wasn’t that you didn’t know how to get there, but you were still getting used to walking and looking around at the same time. You often were looking in the wrong direction than you were walking, which made you get lost the majority of the time. 

“Y/n you’re looking at the sky again” Kenma said, as he was calmly building the foundation of your soon to be home together. 

“Ugh I know!” you cried, dramatically throwing your head back in your chair. “I can’t do it, it’s so hard. I don’t know how you can move your fingers like that.” 

The instant that they escaped your mouth you regretted your choice of words. You definitely didn’t mean for it to come out like that and you were hoping that Kenma wouldn’t catch on but he obviously did. 

You also weren’t meaning to explore any further the sexual implications of what you had said, but your brain betrayed you. Your mind briefly thought about what it might feel like to have those same soft, nimble, dexterous hands in yours, or have them gently rest on your cheek, or firmly grip your waist, or-- _that’s enough._

You pushed the thoughts aside, cursing yourself for even thinking them in the first place, even if they did race by in half a second. 

Kenma looked away from you and smirked. Not having to use much of his imagination to think about what was racking your brain in that moment that you weren’t speaking. It was clear that you thought that you had made him uncomfortable and were embarrassed about what you had said. Even if you didn’t mean it in the way it sounded. Luckily for you, it was Kenma who broke the ever so loud silence. 

“Come here.” 

Your brain and body froze. Surely he wasn’t going to-- 

You slowly turned in your chair to face him and scooted towards the edge of the seat. He did the same and moved closer to you, so that your bodies were inches apart. He brought his golden eyes up to yours that were not subtle in hiding the nervousness inside of you. 

“Show me how you’re holding it,” he said, looking down at your hands that by now had a death grip on the sides of the controller. 

“Oh, um, l-like-like this” you said, showing him how you’d been holding the controller in the time that you’d been playing. You closed your eyes and subtly shook your head, cursing your vocal chords for making you stutter at a time like this. Luckily Kenma didn’t see because he was focused on seeing how you were holding the controller in a way that wasn’t really optimal for playing anything. 

“Here” he said, making you open up your eyes to see what he was talking about. “Try it like this.” 

He moved his hands to the controller and on top of yours, gently guiding your fingers to where they needed to be. Your breath hitched and you were hoping that it was quiet enough that he wouldn’t notice it, or your heart that was practically pounding out of your chest. 

He started moving his fingers on top of yours, over the joysticks making your character walk and look around effortlessly. 

“See?” he said, looking over at you and pointing at the screen with his eyes. 

“Thanks, I think this’ll help. It feels a lot more natural.”

“Good,” he said, as he pulled his hands away and moved back in his chair, continuing to build the house. 

After about another hour or so of playing, you heard an alarm go off on Kenma’s phone indicating that he needed to start his stream in ten minutes. 

“Damn. Sorry y/n, I have to get set up for my stream tonight. We can keep playing tomorrow, is that alright?” he asked, feeling bad that you had to stop. It was only about 9:00 and so you weren’t very tired, and you definitely didn’t want to start stressing about your assignment which you knew would happen if you went back to your room. 

“Do you mind if I w-watch you stream for a little while?” you asked, hoping that you wouldn’t be intruding. 

“You want to watch me stream” Kenma asked, wondering why you would want to spend your time sitting in his room watching him play video games for hours. 

_Don’t girls hate that?_

He remembered many videos on TikTok that he had seen of girls saying how much they hated it when their boyfriends spent all of their time playing video games. 

“Yeah! If you wouldn’t mind. I’d like to see what 10,000 people in this world are spending their hard-earned money on” you said, standing up and ruffling your hand through his hair and moving over to the futon that he had behind his desk next to his bedroom door. 

“I don’t mind, you can watch. But do you have to mess up my hair right before I turn on the camera” he said annoyed, turning to you and angrily attempting to fix his hair. 

“You stream until like 3:00 in the morning, how good can your hair look by then?” you snap back. 

“Good point” he stated, admitting defeat. 

You headed into the kitchen to grab some snacks before he started recording. He briefly explained that you should stay out of the frame of the camera so that no one could see you. People would go crazy asking questions if they saw someone in the background, especially if it was a girl. 

“Are you sure you wanna stay? I’ll probably be up for hours and I don’t know if you’ll be able to leave without anyone seeing you.” 

“I’ll be fineee,” you said, setting his half of snacks on the table next to him and taking yours over to the side of the futon out of view from the camera. “I’m not even tired.” 

You watched Kenma stream for a few hours and you were surprisingly entertained. You were finding it difficult to restrain yourself from cheering when he did something good, but you did. You found yourself getting sleepy around the three hour mark and you weren’t really sure when he was planning on being done. 

You laid down on your elbow and stretched your legs on the futon and only after about five minutes after doing that were you barely able to keep your eyes open and you quickly fell asleep. 

*3rd Person POV:*

Kenma finished up his stream at around 4:30 am and turned off his computer. He finally stood up from his chair to stretch his arms and legs and he saw y/n fast asleep on the futon. 

_I knew she was tired_

He knew that she had a rough day and so he didn’t want to wake her, she looked so peaceful as she slept. Her chest slowly rising and falling, and her features softened in a way that he had never seen before. He also knew that there was no way he could carry her to her room without waking her up either. 

So, he quietly grabbed a spare pillow and blanket from his closet and brought them over to the futon. As gently as he could, he slowly lifted her head just enough to fit the pillow underneath, which surprisingly didn’t wake her up. He then unfolded the blanket and placed it softly over her sleeping figure. 

Once she felt the blanket on her skin, she adjusted slightly underneath it, pulling it closer and snuggling her face into the pillow. Her eyes opened slightly and glanced around the room in a sleepy haze. 

Kenma, not wanting her to wake, slowly bent down next to the futon and placed his hand on the side of her head, pushing her hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. He leaned in so closely that she could almost feel his breath on her ear as he whispered, “go back to sleep y/n.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise the main part of the plot is coming next chapter, I just love these little fluffy moments :) School is going to be busy for me this week but I'll still be updating as much as I can. Thanks for reading! <3 
> 
> xoxo


	8. a girl has been spotted

You had finally gotten through your first semester and you were so ready for a break. It was your summer break, since you didn’t join your classes until the spring semester, insisting to your parents that you wanted to wait to see the cherry blossoms bloom. You thought about going home to visit your parents, but you were enjoying your life here. You spoke with them almost every day and they seemed busy with work and you didn’t want to interrupt their daily routine either. 

It was only about a week into your break but you were already loving it. You were able to work on some pieces that you wanted to do for fun and this weather was your favorite. You were hoping that you’d be able to spend more time with your friends, and you were hoping that Kuroo and his roommates would be able to stop by too. They hadn’t seen Kenma in a while, but he didn’t seem to mind as you knew he was getting more popular on his stream. 

You’d sat and watched him stream a few more nights after the first time. You tried to understand some of the more complicated games that he played, but he was so good at them he made it look so easy and it was hard for you to follow. You would typically end up falling asleep on his futon but he didn’t seem to mind. You always smiled when you woke up in the early hours of the morning with a cozy blanket draped over you that wasn’t there when you fell asleep. 

You liked the time that you’d been spending with Kenma at home. On a few occasions you got Kenma to leave the apartment with you. You only went to the grocery store, but still, you felt accomplished. You even texted Kuroo the first time you got him to come with you. 

Kenma had finally been making some money from his streams which was awesome. But that also meant that he would usually just leave you money on the counter and say that if he paid for it, he didn’t have to come shopping with you. But recently, you would get away with going at night when you knew he was awake and using the excuse that you didn’t want to walk alone late at night. 

You really didn’t mind shopping alone, you preferred it actually. But you wanted to get Kenma out of the house sometimes, and he truly didn’t seem to mind. 

Your parents sent you a care package for the summer since they felt bad for not having seen you in a while so you walked down to the lobby to pick it up. You decided to check the mail as well, while you were down there (because you and Kenma were both awful at remembering to get it often). You just had a letter from your grandparents and Kenma had something from Twitch. 

You took everything back up to the 14th floor and set your things down on the counter. You knocked on Kenma’s door, knowing that he probably wouldn’t be awake at 10:00 am. 

“Kenma! You have some mail!” you yelled, continuously knocking on his door. You knew he’d been streaming more and he had asked you recently to try and make sure that he’s awake by 11:00 everyday. It kind of surprised you, but you were happy to oblige. You typically woke up pretty early and you always talked about how much you liked being up early in the morning and how peaceful it was and he wanted to try it. 

You stopped knocking and walked over to open the box that your parents sent you. It was an assortment of snacks, candles, little decorations, and art supplies that they knew you always needed. That made you smile. They seemed genuinely proud of you when you told them how you did in your classes and you sent them photos of everything you did. You thought that they might be coming around on seeing you as an artist, but you knew it would take some more time. 

As you were putting all of your new snacks in the cabinets you heard Kenma’s door slowly creak open. You turned your head to see a very sleepy and angry Kenma glaring at you for waking him up. The bleach in his hair had grown out quite a bit, leaving blonde just at the tips of his hair. The dark brown mess was tousled over his eyes that were still piercing through your skull. 

“Good morning sleepy head” you said, grinning at him. 

He walked over to the Keurig that you had recently purchased and grabbed a mug out of the cabinet. He hadn’t really drank coffee much before living with you but you drank it so much and talked about it so much that he thought he should give it a try. Especially when you told him that it would help keep him awake during his late night streams. 

“You got something in the mail” you reiterated, as he made his coffee and grabbed another mug out of the cabinet. 

“Who’s it from?” he asked, grabbing the creamer out of the fridge for the second cup. 

“Twitch I think. I didn’t think that they usually sent you stuff in the mail.”

“They usually don’t, I’m not sure what it is” Kenma said as he sipped on his cup of black coffee and put some creamer in the second mug and handed it to you. You tilted your head, giving him a look, wondering why he made you coffee when you didn’t ask. “You don’t look like you’ve had your coffee yet?” he said, pushing it further towards you. 

“Hey, you’re the one that just woke up. But you’re right. Thank you” you said smiling softly and taking a sip of the cup. You’d never once told Kenma how you liked your coffee, but all those times he watched you make it he must’ve been paying attention. You smiled to yourself and sat down at the breakfast bar as he walked over and looked at the envelope that was sitting on the table. 

“That’s weird,” he said, examining the envelope before opening it up. He had gotten a few small paychecks already but they were just sent straight to his account. He knew he had gotten more subscribers since then, but he didn’t know what it could be. 

He unfolded the paper that was inside and immediately he froze up and his eyes went wide. 

“What is it? Did they fire you? Are you banned forever?” you paused and gasped. “Is this about the cat ears thing?” you whispered. Remembering an incident a few weeks ago where some girls in Kenma’s chat wouldn’t stop spamming him telling him that he should wear cat ears on his next stream. You told him it might get him more viewers, but he refused. 

He finally moved his arm to hand the paper over to you, still just staring at the counter without saying a word. You took it in confusion and took a look at it. It kind of looked like a paycheck, but there were so many numbers on it you couldn’t really understand what he was so freaked out by. Your eyes scanned over the numbers that listed his hours streamed, and his subscriber count--

“KENMA YOU HAVE 500,000 SUBSCRIBERS??!!” WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THIS IS SO AMAZING! SO MANY PEOPLE ARE WATCHING YOU YOU’RE PRACTICALLY FAMOUS, RIGHT? DO YOU KNOW HOW--

You paused for a moment when you saw the number at the bottom of the page.

OH MY GOD IS THAT REAL??” you screamed, finally seeing the final 6-figure number. 

You stared up at Kenma waiting for him to respond and he just looked at you and nodded. You honestly didn’t even know what to say, and part of you didn’t think it was real. You never thought in your life that you would be holding a check for that much money. 

“What are you even gonna do with all this?” you asked, hoping that it didn’t sound rude. 

“I don’t know. It’s a lot so probably just save it all it’s not like there’s anything I need to buy” he said, finally sitting next to you still sipping his coffee. 

“How come you didn’t tell me you had that many people watching you Kenma, that’s so amazing!” you said turning to face him and handing the check back very carefully. 

“I don’t know. I kind of did tell you I had more. It’s really not that big of a deal” he shrugged. 

“Um, yes it is and we’re celebrating. You should’ve said something when you hit 100,000 that’s a milestone Kenma! This is insane I can’t believe I didn’t know! That’s such an accomplishment. Oooooo I can invite everyone over, I’ll even ask Shoyo” you cheered, wanting to celebrate how successful Kenma is becoming. 

“We really don’t have to do all of that y/n.” 

“But you’ve like, done it. Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted to do and you’re actually doing it that’s amazing. You should be so proud of yourself” you said with a genuine smile on your face.

“Thanks. I’m am happy about it, but we just don’t have to invite everyone over. We’re supposed to play some games together tonight anyways so I’ll talk to them then, we really don’t have to have a big party” he said, disappointing you a bit. You just wanted to show him that you were proud of him and that he should take pride in his accomplishments. 

“But… if you want to do something, you know I wouldn’t mind having some pie” he said quietly, smiling and peering at you from over his coffee cup, showing you his golden eyes and messy hair. 

You smiled, silently jumping for joy that he only wanted to spend this time celebrating with you. You liked the time that you spent with him, even if you weren’t sure how you felt. You didn’t want to ruin anything that you had built with Kenma, and you both seemed content with how your relationship was, so you were determined to keep it that way. 

You weren’t going to throw anything away just because he sometimes gave you butterflies or made you blush. 

That day you got some pie ingredients and some sparkling grape juice to feel a little extra fancy with the celebration because you knew that Kenma wouldn’t allow much more. He was so humble sometimes that it made you angry, and you wished that he would give himself a little more credit sometimes. 

When you got back home you started baking the pie whose recipe you’d basically perfected over many different attempts and adjustments. You could hear voices coming from Kenma’s room so you figured that he had already started playing with his friends. You definitely heard Kuroo, Shoyo, and maybe Lev? Before you walked in you double checked to make sure that he didn’t have his Pokemon poster up on his door. He put it up when he was streaming so that you would know not to walk in so that you wouldn’t be seen. 

You took his fresh slice of apple pie and sparkling grape juice in your hands and bent down to open up the door handle. “Kenma I have your--” 

_WHO IS THAT_

_IS THAT A GIRL_

_OMG IS THAT HIS GF_

_PLEASE LET US SEE HER KODZUKEN_

_WAIT SHE’S SO HOT PLEASE COME BACK_

As soon as you walked in you froze. He had his streaming lights on, you could see the camera light on as well, indicating that it was recording; and if that wasn’t bad enough, you could see the chat bar on his second monitor and it absolutely blew up the second you walked in the room. 

You quickly got out of his room and closed the door loudly behind you. 

“Shit” you mumbled under your breath. You set his snacks on the counter and immediately sent Kenma a panicked text message. 

to: _kenma_  
from: _y/n_

_OHMYGODIMSOSORRY!!! DID THEY SEE ME??? WHY DID YOU TELL ME YOU WERE STREAMING??? I EVEN CHECKED FOR POKEMON :’(_

He replied right away, trying to ignore all of the messages in his chat, even after he said that you were just his roommate. 

from: _kenma_   
to: _y/n_

_fml._

He was just playing with his friends for a while but they wouldn’t stop nagging him after they found out he had so many subscribers they wanted to be in the stream with him while he played. They were being really annoying about it so he agreed just to get them to shut up. Since it was a spur of the moment decision he didn’t even think about letting you know. 

After a few minutes you heard Kenma turn off his game and his door opened. He walked out and just stood in the doorway like he’d seen a ghost, his hair draped over his eyes with the hood of his hoodie up. 

You slowly walked towards him with your hands up in defense, hoping that he wasn’t going to be mad at you for ruining his stream. 

“I’m so sorry Kenma. W-what happened?” you asked, worried about what they might have said to him. 

“They just kept asking questions about you and making comments that I’ll spare you the details of. I told them you were just my roommate, but who knows if they’ll keep bugging me about it. People get invested in stupid stuff like that” he said. 

Before you could even apologize again he stopped you, “Don’t worry about it y/n, it’s not your fault” he reassured you. 

“Thanks” you said shyly, still feeling bad. 

“You know, now that I’m not streaming anymore I think I’m ready for that pie. But, I don’t think we should celebrate. I mean yes I have more subs now and I know it’s a good thing. But I think we should celebrate you” he said, lifting up the glass of sparkling grape juice you’d poured for him. 

“Me?” you asked. “Why?” 

“You finished your first semester of art school duh, did you forget already?” he asked, poking your forehead. “Also with straight A’s might I add.” 

“It’s two classes Kenma getting straight A’s is hardly an accomplishment” 

He held up his index finger signaling you to stop talking. “I don’t care what you want to celebrate about. I choose to cheers to you” he said, holding up the champagne glass that you bought specifically for this occasion. 

You held yours up and a light _clink_ sounded at the kitchen table. You stayed up for hours eating (basically the entire apple pie) and talking to each other. As you talked and laughed with Kenma you thought about what his viewers must’ve been asking. I mean you walked into the room with dessert and what looked like wine; you didn’t blame them for thinking you were his girlfriend. 

You were more worried about how the more you thought about it, you wouldn’t mind being his girlfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is kind of all over the place i wrote most of it in class but i'll step it up with the next one. i'm super excited for the next few chapters and i can't wait to see what you all think!! thank you for reading <3
> 
> xoxo


	9. Agreement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is basically just a short scene, but I wanted the next chapter to sit on it's own, so it might be on the shorter side too :)

It had only been a few days since you were spotted in the background of Kenma’s stream. You knew that his viewers had been asking about it ever since then, constantly pestering him with questions about you and asking to see you again. 

You were currently hanging out in your apartment with friends, really it was just Kuroo and his friends. As well as Shoyo, who you were excited to meet since Kenma seemed to talk about him quite a bit. 

You were all sitting in the living room on the floor around the table. You were having a nice time, hearing about how everyone is doing, and getting to meet Shoyo, Bokuto, and Akaashi. You’d heard about them before but this was your first time meeting them and they seemed really fun. You wished Kenma would invite them over more often. 

“Y/n they really went wild for you in the chat the other day” Kuroo said, reminiscing on the comments that he read in the few seconds that you were on screen. 

“Kuroo don't,” Kenma said seriously, looking up from his switch for the first time since they’d been here. 

“I was only on the screen for like two seconds. How did they even see me?” you asked, wondering what they could’ve even been saying. 

“Trust me they saw you,” Bokuto said grinning at Kuroo. 

“What did they say?” you asked, genuinely curious. 

“Most of them were just saying how hot you were. Oh and that they wanted you to come back and come on the stream with Kenma. But party pooper over here kept saying no” Kuroo said, leaning over close to Kenma, who quickly shoved his face away. 

“Why should she have to do that?” he asked, not taking his eyes off of his screen. 

“Yeah y/n, I don’t know if you would’ve liked what they said. Some of it was… unsettling” Hinata added, eyes wide remembering some of the more vulgar comments that were made. 

Kuroo leaned back on his elbows and let out a dramatic sigh. “I still think you should just say she’s your girlfriend and bring her on the stream” he said. 

Bokuto gasped. “Dude you should! You’d get so many views if you had a girl with you.” 

“That’s probably true Kenma. I mean girls get views way more than guys, especially when they’re pretty” Hinata said, looking over at you then straight down into his lap to try and hide his blush. 

“Would you guys stop? She’s a person. She has her own life and other things to do. I’m not gonna make her sit in front of a camera and do nothing just so I can get views” Kenma said firmly. 

“She could play something with you. I’m sure people would like to see that” Akaashi added. 

“What do you think y/n” Kuroo asked, leaning over the table with his chin in his palms. 

“I mean, I don’t wanna do anything that would mess up Kenma’s streams. But it’s my summer break so I really don’t have much going on” you said, worried that Kenma would be angry with you for not agreeing with him. 

“That’s great! You should bring her on tomorrow night, oh this is going to be so great!” Kuroo cheered. 

“Couldn’t he just say that they were roommates? Why do they have to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend?” Hinata asked. Kuroo was the first one to jump in. 

“People will just get more into it that way. Plus--” 

“They won’t say gross things about her if they think she’s my girlfriend” Kenma interrupted. 

Akaashi turned to you, “would you be okay with that y/n?” he asked gently. 

“Sure, why not? I really wouldn’t mind if it would get more people to watch. But I wouldn’t want it to be about me, they should still focus on Kenma and his games. So, if it will take away from that then I don’t want to.” You knew how important it was to Kenma that he keeps doing this and you didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize his success. 

“You know, you guys should come up with some fake stuff about yourselves. Like your anniversary and things like that, just in case people ask questions” Bokuto added, excited that he was contributing. 

“That’s such a great idea Bokuto!” Hinata chimed, high-fiving Bokuto. 

Kenma, with an annoyed look on his face, took a hold of your wrist and dragged you into his bedroom. 

“You’re just gonna leave them out there?” you asked, not wanting to seem rude for leaving your guests alone. 

“They’ll be fine. Look, y/n, I hate to say it but what they’re thinking isn’t a totally bad idea. But I don’t want you to think that I’m using you. We’ll only do it if you want to” he said, staring intently into your eyes, you could tell he meant what he was saying. 

“It’s fine I promise. I think it could be fun” you said, shrugging your shoulders casually. 

“Okay.” He sighed a breath of relief. “Just promise me that if you want to stop you just tell me and we will” he said seriously, tightening his grip on your wrist that you forgot he was still holding onto. 

“I will, I promise” you said sincerely, giving him a smile. 

“Okay. I’ll introduce you tomorrow night if that’s okay with you. We can let people ask questions if they want and then if you don’t mind I’ll just go about my normal stream.”

“Sounds good to me. We should go back out there, they can help us figure out some things to say and what questions they think that people might ask us” you said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back out into the living room. 

“There’s the lovebirds” Kuroo sang as the two of you sat back down at the table. 

“What kinds of questions should we be ready to answer?” Kenma asked quietly, pulling out his phone to play a game on while everyone talked. 

“Definitely should know how long you’ve been together” Bokuto said.

“You should decide on an anniversary date too,” Akaashi added. 

“Oooooo you should tell the story of how you met. Or, like if someone asks, you should have a good one to tell” Hinata said. 

“Couldn’t that part be real?” you asked softly. “How we met, I mean we don’t have to make it harder than it should be right?” 

“Good point. As long as you guys agree it should be alright” Kuroo said. 

“You know, they might expect you to kiss or something. So maybe you should practi--” 

Bokuto was interrupted by Kenma chopping him on the top of the head. 

“No real couple would kiss just because someone asked them too, dumbass.” He quietly retreated back to his game. 

“OW! Akaashiiiii--” 

“You deserved it Bokuto” Akaashi said, not wanting to put up with a whiny Bokuto for the rest of the night. 

“Well,” Kuroo started, standing up. “We should probably get going now. Don’t worry you guys will do great.”

“Yeah! We’ll be watching so we’ll back you guys up,” Hinata said, raising his fists in the air. 

You walked them to the door and waved as they walked down the hall. You slowly turned back into the apartment and closed the door. What were you getting yourself into? 

*in the hallway* 

“Are you sure this is a good idea Kuroo?” Hinata asked, looking up at the black-haired boy who was smirking as he walked down the hall. 

“Yeah, I think Kenma might actually like y/n” Bokuto added. 

“Oh he definitely does. I mean just the way he looks at her you can tell, and I think she might like him too. This might just give them the push that they need.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited to write chapter 11 :))) I have the dialogue written out and I love it. I have most of the rest outlined and I'm thinking that it'll be around 15 chapters total, but i'll update you as i write. thank you for reading <3
> 
> xoxo


	11. this is y/n and she's my girlfriend

It was the next day and you and Kenma had prepared all last night, coming up with answers to questions that you thought people might ask. You probably should’ve gotten more sleep, but you had everything about your fake relationship down pat. You quizzed each other over the details while you played Minecraft. 

The first thing that the two of you agreed on was that you wanted your relationship to be new. That way you had an easy way out of not being able to answer deeper questions about each other. You decided that you would tell them that you’d only been dating for about two months. You stuck with the original story of how you met and made up a random day as well. 

Kenma had actually picked out the date, you weren’t sure why he wanted to, you kind of figured he just threw out the first day that came to mind. But little did you know, that “random” day that was now your fake anniversary was the day that you first made him apple pie.

You got ready to be in front of the camera and knocked on Kenma’s door when you were finished. 

“Come in” you heard him call. You walked in and he was getting everything set up. A bit more clumsily than usual, dropping things as he was getting his monitors and backgrounds prepared. He was nervous. 

Even though it was fake, he was nervous about having to act like he had a girlfriend, he’d never had one before, never really even come close, so he wasn’t entirely sure how he should act. 

He did get some pointers after shamefully FaceTiming Kuroo after you left his room last night, asking him how he should be towards you, and how boyfriends are supposed to be. 

“You ready?” you asked, noticing that he seemed a bit on edge. 

“Yeah, are you?” he asked, walking over to his closet. 

“Yep! Only a tiny bit nervous, I hope they’re nice to me” you said, not knowing how you’d be able to handle it if you started getting hate comments. 

“Here,” Kenma said, handing you a hoodie from his closet. You grabbed it from him and gave him a confused look, not understanding what he was giving it to you for. 

“Put it on,” he said. 

“Why?” you asked. “Is my outfit really that bad? I can change--” 

“No-no!” he said in defense. “Sorry, I just--I thought that that was something girls did; wearing their boyfriend’s clothes. You don’t have to if you--” 

“Oh god, sorry! Of course, no you’re right that’s such a good idea! Thanks Kenma” you said, happily pulling the hoodie over your head. It fit you pretty well, you could wear the same size as Kenma’s but he wore his clothes a little baggy which made them perfectly cozy on you. 

You heard the familiar ringtone coming from Kenma’s phone which meant that it was time to get the steam started. You sat down in the chair next to Kenma’s and scooted away so that you could be out of the frame until he introduced you. 

“Are you nervous?” you asked him, as he sat down and pulled all of the programs up. “A little bit” he said honestly, “I just hope this works how Kuroo says it will.” 

“I’m excited!” you said, wriggling with excitement in your chair. “Why?” he asked, wondering why you were acting like you were about to be on TV. 

“Because, I get to be seen as the girlfriend of the oh so famous Kodzuken!!!” you said, fake fangirling over the boy sitting next to you. He turned slowly in his chair to you and said blankly, “never do that again.” 

You giggled to yourself as he turned on the camera and started to stream. He played around on Minecraft for a few minutes, waiting for more people to join to make his announcement. You weren’t nervous about doing this before, but the moment he turned that camera on you got goosebumps all over your body and your hands began to shake. 

It wasn’t that big of a deal, you weren’t sure what your deal was. You weren’t nervous about the number of people, no. You were nervous about the glimpses of being Kenma’s girlfriend that you were being granted. This relationship had barely started and you were already in his clothes. 

You heard Kenma say something that got your attention, knowing that it was time to pay attention. “Alright so since you’ve all been bugging me about it for the past few days, here she is,” he gestured to you and you rolled your chair closer to Kenma’s so that you were in the frame with him. 

You saw the number at the bottom of the screen, signaling how many people were watching. 

527,293

“Hi!!” you smiled and waved cheerfully at the camera. 

“Just to clear things up since I know that a lot of people were asking and wouldn’t stop until I talked about it. I know that I said last time that she was my roommate, but this is y/n and she’s my girlfriend, so I expect you to treat her as such.” 

You smiled at Kenma saying your name, even though you’d heard him say it a thousand times before, it never got old. You saw the chat bar going crazy on Kenma’s second monitor. The messages were going by so quickly you could barely read most of them: 

_OHMYGODSHESSOPRETTY  
_

__

A GODDESSSSSSS  


__

_#welovey/n  
_

__

you are so cute together  


__

Y/N YOU ARE SO HOT (sorry kodzuken)  


__

CAN WE ASK QUESTIONS PLZZZZZ  


__

_PLZZZZ  
just a few _

After seeing that message you and Kenma looked at each other and smiled, knowing that your plan was falling perfectly into place. You’d both thought of a way that could limit the questions that people asked, as well as more support for Kenma.

“So, if you guys want to ask us a question you can donate and we’ll answer it. We’re gonna play Minecraft for a bit, so we’ll answer whatever comes up” he said, handing you his second controller that was now designated for your use only. 

You held the controller in your hands, staring down at it with your eyes wide open, which quickly flickered back to the screen. 

529,647

“Kenma..” you whispered, not knowing if the people on the stream knew his real name or not. 

“Hmm” he hummed to you, not taking his eyes off of the screen. 

“Do I really have to play Minecraft in front of 500,000 people? They’re gonna rip me apart you know I suck” you whispered through your teeth, not knowing why he would subject you to such embarrassment. 

“No” he whispered back, looking at the screen. He pointed to the growing number at the bottom. 

“You’re gonna do it in front of 529,718 people.” 

You glared at him and picked up the controller. 

“I hate you” you whispered under your breath. 

“Oh stop, it’ll be cute.” 

You heard a chime that indicated someone had donated. You looked up to the screen to see what the question was. 

_how long have you been dating?_

You and Kenma smiled at the screens and did a low high five under your desk, knowing that you’d solidly prepared for this moment. 

“Two months” you said simultaneously. 

The stream was going great, more and more people were joining by the minute. You stopped worrying about what people thought of your Minecraft playing, Kenma was right, they thought it was cute that he had to come help you all the time. You were surprised how good he was at this even though he’d never been in a relationship before. 

You were having so much fun answering the questions and playing with Kenma. Even if there was a question that you hadn’t rehearsed before, one of you would pick it up easily and knock it out of the park. Kenma was almost done building something for you and it was a large greenhouse where he said you could put all of the flowers that you always pick up for no reason, other than the fact that they’re “pretty.” 

The chat flooded with “awws,” hearts, and people calling Kenma a simp. It was weird, now that you saw him doing these things under this light, you started to question his actions. He’d been building this for a few days now, so it’s not like he was planning on doing it just for the stream. Is that a boyfriend thing? Or just a friend thing? 

You tried your best not to overthink, as you knew that there were many more nights like these to come, and you liked thinking about them. The only thing making it difficult was the few chats that you would occasionally see as you glanced over them. 

_  
_

_plsss i want a girl to look at me the way y/n looks at kodzuken  
_

__

i just want a girl to look at me :')  


__

they’re so perfect for each other  


__

when’s the wedding ???????  


__

_omg i am invited_

_Does he really look at me a certain way?_

You rationalized that they were probably just reading into everything more deeply since they thought you were together, so you pushed all of those thoughts aside. You’d drive yourself crazy if you started analyzing every little thing that he did for you. You were friends, roommates, that’s all. 

“Okay guys, just one more question then I’m gonna hop on a different game. Make it a good one” he said, finishing up what he was doing while you were planting your flowers all around your new greenhouse. 

_awwwww  
_

_noooooo  
_

__

plssss stay y/n  


__

don’t leaveeeeeee  


__

:’(  


__

_i cri_

Soon after the bell chimed with the final question for the night. 

_What’s your favorite thing about each other?_

It should’ve been an easy question for any couple, but it’s not one that you and Kenma had planned out. You weren’t sure if you should make something up, or say something that you truly mean. 

Once you both read the question you looked over at Kenma who was looking at you in a way that you’d never seen before. His amber irises meeting yours but they felt more intimate. His entire face seemed to be so relaxed looking at you in that moment, almost longingly, like he was looking at a sunrise for the first time in his life. It seemed like he was searching your face, only for a split second, as if he was looking for his answer deep in your eyes. 

He turned back in his chair and answered the question in his usual monotone voice. 

“She supports me, genuinely in everything I do” he said, glancing over to you and gifting you with a gentle smile that was barely noticeable, but you saw it. 

The chat exploded after that:

_OMGOMGOMG  
_

_so cute i can’t  
_

__

SIMP SIMP SIMP SIMP  


__

awwwwwwww  


__

adorableeeeee  


__

_oh so you in love love_

You got nervous after that, not knowing what to say that would elicit the same reaction. You thought back to your favorite moments with Kenma and knew what you wanted to say. 

“He um-I get stressed out a lot and he just-he just always does exactly what I need to uh, make me feel happy and safe” you said, feeling vulnerable that you just said that out loud. Not only in front of Kenma but about 530,000 people too. The chat lit up just the same as it has been and you sighed. Although you felt nervous about saying it, you were glad that you did. Fake relationship or not you wanted Kenma to know that you appreciate him. 

You waved bye on the stream and walked out of Kenma’s room and into the living room. You decided that you just wanted to relax a bit for the rest of the night so you grabbed a book from your room that you told yourself you would read and never got around to doing it. 

You laid down on the couch snuggling up in a blanket, still wearing Kenma’s hoodie and started reading, hearing the background noises of Kenma still streaming in his room. You ended up dozing off for a while in the living room, the book laid out on your chest, must’ve not been very interesting considering you were only reading for about 20 minutes before you fell asleep. 

You woke up to someone’s hand resting gently on your shoulder, shaking you ever so slightly to wake you up. 

“Y/n” Kenma whispered. 

You opened your eyes to see Kenma kneeling on the ground beside you. 

“What time is it?” you asked groggily, rubbing your eyes and sitting up slowly.

“About 1:00 am. I want to show you something” he said, putting his hand out for you to grab. 

“What is it?? I’m sleeeepy” you whined, throwing your body back onto the couch and snuggling into the blanket. “Just show me” you said, not wanting to move. 

“I can't, it's in my room. Come on, you’ll like it I promise” he said, holding his hand closer to you. 

You sighed and glared at him clumsily taking his hand while you wrapped your arms around his, clinging to his body as he guided you over to his bedroom. His cheeks flushed having you so close to him, but he chuckled slightly, knowing that you were just tired. 

He plopped you down in your chair next to his and you closed your eyes from the sudden brightness of the computer screen. You laid your head down in your arms on his desk, awaiting this news that was so important that he had to wake you. 

“Kenma if you’re gonna show me one of your highlights right now instead of waiting until the morning I’m go--”

“It’s not that. I got an email from Twitch they’re inviting us to an event at the beach” 

“The beach?!” you shot your head up as if you’d been wide awake the entire time. “Us?” you added, not understanding why some company would invite you too. 

“They saw the stream tonight and they said they were planning on inviting me anyways and they gave me a plus one for you after they saw you” Kenma said. 

“You wanna go?” you asked, knowing that large crowds definitely aren't his thing. You didn’t know if he’d want that much attention. 

“Kind of actually. It would be good to get my name in with a lot of these people, I think it could be a good business opportunity” he said. “We’d have to act like we were dating the whole time” he said shyly, “would you be okay with that?” 

“Um, duh it’s the beach I’ve never been there before! It’s gonna be so much fun” you said, excitedly, already planning what you were going to wear. The truth was, you were kind of excited that you would get to play Kenma’s fake girlfriend in front of people. You were trying not to let it get to you too much, but it was just for fun right? You were more than content that your first time seeing the ocean would be with Kenma by your side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> are we psyched for this beach trip??? let me know what you think about the pacing, sometimes i feel like i drag scenes out more than i need to but i just have so many ideas <3 thank you for readingggg
> 
> xoxo


	12. Fun at the Mall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slight TW: there are some mentions of sexual harassment in this chapter

“How many days is it again?” you asked Kenma as you looked through your closet, trying to think of what to pack. He had wandered into your bedroom playing a game on his phone when he saw your many text messages asking him for more details about the trip that the two of you were taking in two days. 

“I think it’s a week,” he said, sitting himself carefully at the edge of your bed. 

You rummaged through your closet, pulling out things that you thought you might want to bring, not really knowing what was on the schedule as Kenma didn’t seem too worried about the specifics that you kept trying to get out of him. 

“So what is it for? Like are there events or meetings or something that you have to go to?”

“I think they have stuff going on all week like some small gaming tournaments for fun. I know that there’s gonna be a bunch of different companies and potential sponsors there too, so I should probably try and talk to some of them” he said, wondering how he was going to manage. 

“Are you gonna do the tournaments and things like that?” you asked, knowing that large crowds of people wasn’t really wasn’t his ideal situation. But then again, he had hundreds of thousands of people that watched him every week so he could be getting used to it. 

“Maybe some of them, I’m not really sure what they are. But I’m just hoping I can get some sponsors and talk to some of the bigger companies. There’s also going to be companies there announcing some new games and looking for people to play them so I’ll be going to those too. You don’t have to come with me to everything if you don’t want to, I know you’re excited to be on the beach” he said, looking up at you while you rummaged through your clothes, throwing the ones that you didn’t want all over the room. 

“Oh that’s okay. There'll be plenty of time to spend at the beach. Plus, we’re supposed to be dating, so people will think it’s weird if we don’t spend time together” you said, as you threw a few more shirts into a suitcase that looked like it had gotten swallowed by everything in your closet. 

“Good point. Are you all packed?” he asked sarcastically, watching you try to shove down the pile of clothes as much as you could into the suitcase. 

“For the most part” you said, ignoring the mess that you’d made. You hated packing. You grabbed another suitcase from the closet to fit the rest so you could actually zip them both up. “Didn’t you say something about there being a formal dinner?” 

“Oh yeah there is, I forgot about it. It’s on the last night, they give out some awards and random boring stuff like that” he said, not seeming too excited that he was obligated to attend. 

You knew that Kenma wasn’t excited about dressing up, but you were. It had been a while before you’d had an excuse to look fancy and especially since you were going to be around people that were likely pretty rich, you wanted to look your best. 

“Do you need something to wear? I’m going shopping today to try and find something a little fancier than what I already have. Wanna come with me?” 

He had a pained expression on his face as he groaned, “Can’t I just wear semi-nice clothes? Who cares?” he said, not loving the idea of having to go out and buy something new that he would probably never wear again. 

“Oh come on, Kenma, don’t you want to look nice in front of all the big and important business people?” you asked, still not truly understanding who these people were. 

“Fine. We’ll go at noon, I don’t wanna be there all day” he said, walking out of your room to go get changed. 

Since it was lunchtime on a weekend the mall was packed. You were trying to keep your budget to $150. You had a few dresses, but none of them were very formal and you didn’t want to stick out. Luckily you had some decent pairs of heels so that would save you some money. 

You wondered when Kenma had ever gone clothes shopping because right now he looked miserable. He had an aura that could scare children away, this was definitely not where he wanted to be right now. 

“Lighten up it’s a mall Kenma, don’t be so grumpy” you said, nudging his shoulder with your own as you walked around, looking for stores that you might want to look in. 

As you walked you saw a kid that looked maybe a few years younger than you walking towards you and Kenma. He stood right in front of you, making the two of you come to a halt. He looked nervous, but he eventually blurted out, “A-are you Kodzuken??” he asked, probably a bit louder than he wanted to. 

You glanced at Kenma with a smile on your face. This was the first time anyone had ever recognized him in public, and he didn’t seem like he knew what to do about it. 

“Yeah” Kenma said, not really knowing what else he was supposed to say. He didn’t want to be rude, but he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to act in situations like these. 

“C-can I take a picture with you?” he asked, holding out his phone in his shaky hands. You didn’t know why he was so nervous, he was practically the same age, and if he knew Kenma he would know that he was probably way more nervous than him. 

“Sure,” Kenma said softly. You took the phone from the boys hands and pointed the camera at them. They both stood awkwardly next to each other making you giggle. 

“You gonna do something?” you asked, making both of the boys look at each other confused. “Okay here we go, 1...2...3!” You snapped the picture and looked at it, making sure it wasn’t blurry. You smiled to yourself as you saw the boy who looked like he was holding his breath the entire time, and Kenma who flashed a bored looking peace sign near his shoulder. 

“Here you go!” you cheered, handing the phone back to the kid. He seemed to loosen up after the picture was taken, probably realizing how awkward Kenma actually was. 

“Woah you’re his girlfriend aren’t you? The one from his streams?” the boy asked, his eyes lighting up.

“Yep, that’s me!” you smiled. 

The boy chuckled lightly to himself and started to walk away but not before stopping close to Kenma and saying something under his breath that you couldn’t quite hear. 

“Dude. If I were you, I’d keep an arm around her or something, you should see the way some of these guys are looking at her. I’ve seen like 3 guys walk by already just staring at her ass” he gestured to a group of men that was eyeing you from the other side of the walkway. Kenma hummed under his breath and nodded back to the boy as he kept walking the opposite direction. 

“What was that about?” you asked, continuing your initial lap around the mall. 

“Nothing” he muttered, but quickly took your hand in his. 

You almost gasped from the sudden contact, but you were able to contain it. 

_He’s holding my hand!_

Your mind shot back to when you were playing Minecraft and he skillfully moved his fingers overtop of yours. You felt a surge go from your fingertips and travel up your arm, like there were sparks being set off from inside of you. 

You raised a brow at Kenma, questioning his sudden displays of affection. 

“He said some guys were looking at you, and I’ve gotta act like your boyfriend right?” he asked, worried that he made you uncomfortable. 

“Right,” you said, nodding slowly. “Thanks.” You blushed softly, hoping he didn’t notice. But, he did, and he took that as a sign that you were definitely okay with him holding your hand. 

Finally you both saw some stores that you wanted to go into. Yours was a department store that had some pretty nice looking dresses inside, you were hoping there were some you could afford. Nearby there was a store that sold all kinds of men’s clothing and suits. 

“Go on,” you said to Kenma, motioning towards the store. “You don’t have to come in here with me. Unless you want to and you want me to come and pick something out for you” you said smiling. 

“It’s fine, I’ll go myself. Just text me if you need anything” he said, letting go of your hand and walking into the men’s store as you made your way into the isles of dresses. 

You took a lap around the store first, just to see everything they had before you started to try anything on. You were browsing a particular section of dresses that seemed that they would appropriately fit the occasion of a formal dinner. You held the fabric between your hands, admiring it. You couldn’t remember a time that you were able to wear something like this. 

A particular dress caught your eye, it was hanging on the wall, which probably meant it was expensive but you made your way over to it anyways. It was a dark emerald green, satin material. As you walked over to it to get a closer look, you felt a presence looming over your shoulder. 

“You know. I think you’d look beautiful in that one?” a raspy voice spoke behind you. You turned around to see a middle aged man, pointing to a rather revealing dress that was hanging on a rack to your right. 

“Excuse me?” you said, staring the man in his eyes, hoping that he would just leave you alone. But after making such a forward comment you weren’t sure if he would. 

“Come on” he spat. “A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be all covered up like this” he moved to put a hand on your shoulder to which you quickly flinched, moving away from him. Unfortunately since you were looking at the hanging dress, he basically had you backed into the wall. 

“Why don’t you just try it on? I’ll buy it for you” he said, leaning obnoxiously close to your face. 

You glanced around to see if there was anyone that you could pretend to know that would get you out of this. But the dress you were looking at was in a back corner of the store, and you were surrounded by racks of dresses, it would be more difficult for someone to see you. 

“Sorry, I uh, have a boyfriend” you said, moving to try and get out of his way, but he moved with you, blocking your way and caging you in with his arms. 

“I don’t think that’s what I asked, little lady. Besides, nice try, I saw you come in alone. I don’t think a boyfriend would let a sexy thing like you wander out all by herself” he tried to grab your face with his hands, but you kept moving away, heart beating faster as you still didn’t see anyone in your vicinity. You didn’t think you’d have time to get your phone out to try and text Ken-- 

You suddenly saw the man step away, and at the same time you felt an arm snake it’s way behind your waist and hold you firmly against their body. You were about to smack it away until you heard a familiar gentle voice beside you. 

“There you are babe, I was looking everywhere for you.” 

He used his thumb and index finger to slightly lift your chin so that you were looking into his eyes, inches away from his face, his thumb dangerously close to your lips. 

“Is this guy bothering you?” he asked, not taking his eyes off of yours. 

You couldn’t find words to speak for a multitude of reasons at the moment, so all you were able to manage was a small nod. Kenma shot a glare at the man that seemed to chill him to the core, as he stumbled back and bolted out of the store. Kenma was happy about that, he wasn’t the type to get into any physical altercation. Kenma pulled away from you, realizing that he was still holding on to you and his hand was still on your face. 

“Are you okay? What did he do?” he asked, moving his hands to your shoulders. 

“I’m okay” you finally spoke. “He just just being a creep, nothing too serious. Thanks for coming to get me.” 

“Of course. Are you sure you’re alright?” he said, not loosening his grip on your shoulders. 

“Yes!” you said, giggling a little bit so he knew you were serious. He moved his hands away and immediately got embarrassed. 

“Sorry for touching you like that. I should’ve asked you first” he said, looking at the ground. 

“Don’t apologize, you did the right thing. Plus, I didn’t mind” you said, trying not to sound too eager. “You found something that fast?” you said, pointing down to the bags that were in his hands. 

“Yeah. All suits are basically the same, I didn’t really care what it looked like, they aren’t that interesting. Did you find anything?” he asked. 

“Well I like this one” you said, pointing to the dress above your head. “But, since it’s on the wall it’s probably pretty expensive. There’s a bunch in here though I’m sure I’ll find something” 

You walked around the store a bit more, starting to look more closely at price tags. You weren’t sure when but at some point Kenma’s hand had made its way back into yours, which you appreciated. Fake boyfriend or not, he was being protective of you which was something you could get used to. 

“What color is your suit at least, so I can match?” you asked, knowing that any couple would at least coordinate. 

“It’s just gray,” he said, “Anything you wear should be fine.” 

There were a few that you thought looked nice, but you didn’t like them enough to even want to try them on. You were already feeling defeated. As you circled back around the store, your eyes moved back to the dress hanging on the wall. Kenma noticed and rolled his eyes at you, and squeezed your hand to get your attention.

“Just try it on,” he said, knowing that you wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it. 

“I haven’t even checked but I’m sure I can’t afford it.” 

“But you like it right?” he said, stating the obvious. 

“Well, yeah it--” 

“Go,” he interrupted, “try it on, I’ll wait for you.” He let go of your hand and shoved you in the direction of the saleswoman behind the counter, you knew you probably shouldn’t just be grabbing the dress yourself. 

“Hi there! How can I help you today?” she smiled kindly. 

“Hi! Um, can I try on that dress over there?” you asked, pointing at the masterpiece. 

“Of course, follow me!” She led you over to it and grabbed it off the wall (of course it was exactly your size). 

“Oh my goodness this color would look so amazing with your hair and your skin, ugh! I can’t wait to see you in this. Let me know if you need any help.” 

She pushed you towards the dressing room so that you could get changed. She walked over to Kenma who was leaning by the wall, preoccupied with a game on his phone. 

“Would you like her to come out and show you?” she asked, directing his attention towards some couches that were in front of a tri-fold mirror. 

“Sure” he walked over and sat himself down on the couch. 

You stood in the dressing room and basically turned the dress inside out trying to find the price tag. Once you did, your jaw dropped. It was $500. You debated just putting it back, since you knew you shouldn’t try it on if it’s so far from your budget. 

_Maybe if I like this one, I can find something similar somewhere else._

You rationalized with yourself before you pulled the dress onto your body. It was a dark shade of green, emerald, veridian, one or the other, you couldn’t tell the difference. The satin gave it a glorious sheen that did in fact compliment your skin tone perfectly. The top was a v-neckline with thin straps, it really was beautiful. You smoothed your hands over the fabric and stared at yourself for a minute. 

“Are you ready?” the saleswoman chimed, knocking on your door. 

_Ready for what?_

You cracked the door open and looked at her smiling face. “What do you mean?” you asked. 

“Come on” she gestured for you to walk out, “you have to show your boyfriend.” 

The word ‘boyfriend’ caught Kenma’s attention and he looked up from his phone. 

“Right! Yes! Let’s go show my boyfriend” you said, walking out of the dressing room. She let you stand in front of a big mirror with three sides so you could get a good look at it in some better lighting. 

“Soooo, what do we think?” the woman asked, even though you weren’t quite sure which one of you she was talking to. Kenma could barely hide his rosy cheeks from the moment you walked out of the dressing room. 

“It’s nice,” he said, trying to control his eyes that so desperately wanted to wander. 

You were in awe of yourself, to the point where you didn’t even know what to say. Even though you didn’t have your hair or makeup done, this was the prettiest you’d felt in a long time. The saleswoman made her way over to Kenma, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of you yet. 

“It really looks great on her. You’re lucky. Your girlfriend is quite pretty” she said smiling in his direction. 

“I know” he mumbled, still not averting his gaze. Finally he walked up to you as you smoothed your hand over the folds and fabric of the dress, still not having said anything about it yet. 

“Do you like it?” he asked, looking at you from the mirror. 

“Of course, it’s gorgeous. I’m sure I can find something similar” you said, moving away from the mirror. 

“Why don’t you just get this one? We leave the day after tomorrow you aren’t gonna have much time to find anything” he stated. 

“Kenma it’s $500” you whispered to him. “My $150 was pushing it a little bit. If I don’t find anything it’s fine, I have some stuff that I can wear. I was just hoping to find something better.” 

“Are you sure?” Kenma asked, holding your wrist before you could walk any further towards the dressing room. 

“Yes! I’m gonna change now, we can head back home if you’re done. I don’t need anything else.” 

You walked back into the dressing room and closed the door behind you with a sigh. The moment Kenma heard the door click shut, he walked over to the saleswoman who had made her way behind the counter. 

“Do you guys ship these?” he asked, referring to the dresses. 

“Yes, we do!” 

“Cool. Here,” he handed her his credit card. “We’ll take it, can you ship it to this address?” He wrote it down on a small piece of paper that was sitting on the counter. 

The woman grinned at his frantic actions as he clumsily scribbled an address that he was reading from his phone. “Is it a surprise?” she whispered to him. 

“You could say that” he said, “is this okay?” he asked, showing her the address. 

“Perfect. You’re all set” she said, giving him a wink before you came back out in your regular clothes. 

Part of him still felt bad for making you do all of this with him, so he thought that he could at least do something to repay you. Ever since he started getting paid for his streams, money definitely wasn’t an issue, and he wanted to thank you somehow. Hopefully you liked it, he felt bad for making it a surprise, but he couldn’t help it, he liked to see you flustered. He also wouldn’t forgive himself if he missed the opportunity to see you in that dress again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I meant for this to only be half of a chapter but it ended up being 3000 words so I left it off here. I promise they'll be at their event next chapter :)) Let me know what you think! 
> 
> p.s. I'm going out of town this weekend so I'll get as much written as I can before then :) Other than that I probably won't publish until Sunday or Monday, thank you for reading <33
> 
> xoxo


End file.
